Eu3+-doped Tb3+ metal–organic frameworks emitting tunable three primary colors towards white light

A new bifunctional tetrazolate-5-carboxylate ligand has been prepared and employed in assembling 2-D Eu(III)–Zn(II) and Tb(III)–Zn(II) isostructural heterometallic MOFs with a (3,6)-connected kgd topology. The ligand in Tb3+ MOFs not only shows an antenna effect to transfer absorbed energy to Tb3+ centers to emit characteristic luminescence but also maintains good blue luminescent properties. Further, we have realized a rational design strategy to construct a series of Eu3+-doped Tb3+ MOFs emitting tunable three primary colors (RGB: red–green–blue) towards white light with high color rendering index and favorable correlated color temperature.