Synthesis of 5, 6, 11, 12-tetrahyroindolo[3,2-b]carbazole-based dicarboxylate acid for MOFs fabrication via in-situ oxidative dehydrogenation

The indolocarbazole derivatives has been shown great potentials as one of the key important compounds in the field of organic electronics owing to their attractive structural and electrical properties. However, studies that directly and systematically introduce indolocarbazole unit into MOFs are still lacking. Herein, we reported the synthesis of 6,12-di(hetero)aryl substituted 5,6,11,12-tetrahyroindolo[3,2-b]carbazole synthetic motifs in a facile way. The potential of these synthetic motifs as building block for porous materials fabrication is unveiled through the preparation of Zn-MOF-ICZ and UiO-68-ICZ by using 5,6,11,12-tetrahyroindolo[3,2-b]carbazole terminated with dicarboxylate acid. The resultant Zn-MOF-ICZ and UiO-68-ICZ feature 5,11-dihyroindolo[3,2-b]carbazole unit as a result of in-situ oxidative dehydrogenation, which was confirmed by 1H NMR and single crystal X-ray diffraction study. The successful construction of these MOFs indicated the powerful of 6,12-di(hetero)aryl substituted 5,6,11,12-tetrahyroindolo[3,2-b]carbazole unit for porous materials synthesis and this provides a broad platforms for potential applications investigation considering their fine optical properties.