Electrochemical fabrication of long-range ordered macro-microporous metal-organic framework films

Three-dimensional ordered macro-microporous metal-organic frameworks (3DOM MOFs) exhibit attractive optical, catalytic and biosensing properties, but it is challenging to fabricate centimeter-scale 3DOM MOF films while maintaining the uniform and ordered microstructures that enable their properties. In this work, we successfully fabricated 3DOM ZIF-8 inverse opal films by electrochemical deposition. The proposed rapid and controllable one-step method enabled the synthesis of centimetre-scale (4 x 3 cm(2)) 3DOM ZIF-8 films at room temperature without any pretreatment steps. The resulting 3DOM ZIF-8 films featuring periodic macropores showed a structural color that could be tuned by varying the diameter of the macropores. The films exhibited optical selectivity toward a homologous series of simple alcohols with similar refractive indices.