Metal-Organic Frameworks as Crystalline Porous Hosts for Photoactive Molecules

Molecules, which reversibly transform between two structural configurations upon excitation with electromagnetic radiation, are attractive candidates for the design of smart materials e.g. memory devices. An essential prerequisite for the development of such smart materials is the construction of hybrid systems that contain these photochromic molecules on the one and a porous host matrix, which enables their switching process in solid state, on the other hand. In the present thesis such light responsive materials consisting of switchable guests and crystalline porous hosts were synthesized to form hybrid systems. These systems show photochromic response and host dependent absorption maxima of the incorporated guest molecule, which is known as solvatochromism. Spiropyrans and spirooxazines were selected as guest molecules and different Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as suitable host matrices.