Design of MOFs Containing Porphyrins as Porous Hosts for Generating Singlet Oxygen

Porous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are of interest as host materials for molecular sorption. We are currently developing porous MOFs that incorporate photosensitizers in the MOF backbone in an effort to develop highly sorbent materials that generate singlet oxygen in order to oxidatively decompose adsorbed organic guest molecules present in the MOF. This project focused in three areas: (1) preparation of porous MOFs featuring layers of metalloporphyrin photosensitizers separated by bridging dipyridyl ligands, (2) synthesis and characterization of 5,15-diphenyl-10,20-di-(4-pyridyl)porphyrin (DPyDPP), a porphyrin with two pyridyl groups capable of coordinating to Zn metal ions, and (3) characterization of the activity MOFs toward generating singlet-oxygen