Metal‐Organic Frameworks Enable Spontaneous Singlet Oxygen Generation Without Light Irradiation
Huiping Zhang, Qian Yi, Xin‐Yu Guan, Rui‐Rong Dai, Jie Pang, Qing Zhong, Shaozao Tan, Dong Luo, Yan Yan Li, Mo Xie, Xiao‐Ping Zhou, Wei‐Xue Li
Abstract
Abstract Singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) is a widely used reactive oxygen species (ROS), making the development of new materials capable of efficiently generating it highly important. In this work, we report a series of isostructural metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs), named JNU‐300 (JNU = Jinan University), can spontaneously generate 1 O 2 by directly activating triplet oxygen ( 3 O 2 ) from the air without the need for additional light irradiation. The highly selective generation of 1 O 2 by JNU‐300 is verified by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and probe experiments for 1 O 2 . The generated 1 O 2 can be employed for aerobic oxidation of sulfide and antibacterial application. Mechanism studies revealed that the framework structure, and the adsorption and polarization of O 2 by the coordination units of JNU‐300, are crucial for the 1 O 2 generation. To the best of our knowledge, MOFs JNU‐300 are the first MOF material capable of producing 1 O 2 by activating 3 O 2 in the absence of light at room temperature. This work provides new insights into the design and construction of functional MOF materials capable of generating 1 O 2 via activating 3 O 2 without light irradiation, opening new possibilities for their application in specialized fields that require 1 O 2 in the dark.