Scalable Room-Temperature Synthesis of Glass-like MOF Thin Films on Arbitrary Substrates with Versatile Functionality

Metal-organic framework (MOF) glasses and glass-like materials offer unique advantages including improved flexibility, processability and mechanical stability, yet the rational, mild and scalable synthesis of uniform, large-area glassy MOF thin films remains largely unexplored and highly challenging. Herein, we pioneer the fabrication of homogeneous, ultra-smooth glass-like MOF thin films, which can be readily scaled into large-area coatings via a facile room-temperature immersion strategy. By simply placing diverse substrates into the precursor solution for 0.5 to 3 hours, continuous amorphous MOF films with nanometer-scale flatness and centimeter-to-0.3-meter scale uniformity can be readily prepared, with exceptional mechanical properties including Young’s modulus among the highest reported for typical ZIF glasses. Importantly, this unprecedented glass-like MOF film serves as a versatile guiding layer that enables the nucleation and growth of 15 different types of crystalline MOFs on various substrates, overcoming long-standing limitations of substrate dependence and lattice mismatch. This work not only establishes a facile and scalable synthetic platform for high-performance glass-like MOF thin films, but also extends its capability toward the universal growth of crystalline MOF films, unlocking promising new opportunities for device-oriented MOF thin-film materials for gas and isotope separation, electronic devices, sensing and electrocatalytic applications.