LAUSR

Abstract Triphenylamine and its derivatives have been widely concerned because of their excellent performance in the area of the photoelectric functional material. In this work, we chose a nanosized tris(4′-carboxybiphenyl)amine (H3TPA) as organic ligand. By employing the H3TPA ligand to assemble with M2+ (M = Zn, Cd, and Pb) ions, respectively, three metal-organic frameworks (FIR-43 to FIR-45, FIR denotes Fujian Institute of Research) have been synthesized under different solvent systems. FIR-43 exhibits a 3-connected two-dimensional (2D) network based on mononuclear [Zn(COO)3] second building unit (SBU). Unlike the anionic framework FIR-43, FIR-44 is a neutral 2D layer constructed by trinuclear [Cd3(COO)6] SBU and displays a (3,6)-NbSe2 topology structure. If the weak Pb–O interactions in the range of 2.79–2.88 A are considered, FIR-45 is a neutral 3D framework built by hexanuclear [Pb6(DMAE)6(COO)6] SBU (DMAE = N,N-dimethylethanolamine) and represents a (3,6)-connected (4·82)2(42·811·102) topology. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and X-ray powder diffraction (PXRD) patterns were used to evaluate their thermal stability and phase purity. Photoluminescence studies showed that they exhibited strong emitting bands in the visible region with high quantum yields and long luminescent lifetimes.