Perspective Single-crystal metal-organic frameworks for electronic and opto-electronic devices

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of well-ordered hybrid organic-inorganic porous crystalline materials arising from reticulation of metal ions and organic ligands. Because of the versatile skeletons and pores, MOFs offer numerous possibilities for inter -play with electrons, photons, excitons, and spins, making them appealing for various device applications. Until now, lots of devices focus on polycrystalline MOF materials, while single-crystal MOFs could enable the potential of higher carrier transport and device stability rather than their polycrystalline counterparts because of the low defect concentrations and extra single-crystal features. Never-theless, the synthesis of single-crystal MOFs and morphology control are challenging. This perspective provides a brief overview of single-crystal MOF devices and presents some unexplored opportunities for applying single-crystal MOFs to electronic and opto-electronic devices. Key challenges must be solved to realize single-crystal MOF device applications.