The increasing demands for optical anti-counterfeiting technology require the development of versatile luminescent materials with multiple models and tunable photoluminescence. Herein, the combination of luminescent perovskite nanocrystals and lanthanide-based metal-organic frameworks (Ln-MOFs) has been developed to offer such a high-tech anti-counterfeiting solution. The hybrid materials have been fabricated via the encapsulation of perovskite CHNHPbBr nanocrystals in europium-based metal-organic frameworks (Eu-MOFs) and they display multistage anti-counterfeiting behavior. CHNHPbBr@Eu-MOF hybrids were developed in a two-step process, where the PbBr@Eu-MOF precursor was formed first and, then, the composites can be formed quickly by the addition of CHNHBr into the precursors. Accordingly, the hybrid composites exhibited both excitation wavelength and temperature-dependent luminescence properties in the form of powders or films. Furthermore, the photoluminescence of the CHNHPbBr@Eu-MOF composites can be quenched and recovered through water immersion and CHNHBr conversion, and the anti-counterfeiting applications have also been discussed. Therefore, this finding will open the opportunity to fabricate the hybrid materials with controlled photoluminescence properties, and it also acts as the emerging anti-counterfeiting materials in versatile fields.

All-inorganic halide perovskite (CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br, or I) nanocrystals (NCs) have been widely studied due to their outstanding optoelectronic properties. However, some inevitable factors like light, heat, and moisture affected the stability of CsPbX3 NCs and further limited their practical application. In this work, the stability of all-inorganic halide perovskite NCs can be improved by integrating them in the stable Zr-based metal–organic frameworks (Uio-67). Compared to pristine perovskite NCs, typical CsPbBr3@Uio-67 composites display a stable photoluminescence property that can be maintained for 30 days under ambient atmospheric conditions. Due to the proposed confinement effects of CsPbX3 NCs coordinated with the pore structures of Uio-67, the related structural model of CsPbX3@Uio-67 composites was elucidated. White LED device was further fabricated by combining CsPbBr3@Uio-67 composites and commercial K2SiF6:Mn4+ red phosphors with a blue-emitting chip, which demonstrated a wide color gamut (138% of National Television Standards Committee color space). The strategy on encapsulation of CsPbX3 NCs into Uio-67 will open up a stable platform for optoelectronic applications.

The encapsulation of fluorescein dye into porous zinc–adenine metal–organic framework (bio-MOF-1) crystals has been studied for metal cation sensing.

Gas hydrates could show an unexpected high stability at conditions out of thermodynamic equilibrium, which is called the self-preservation effect. The mechanism of the effect for methane hydrates is here investigated via molecular dynamics simulations, in which an NVT/E method is introduced to represent different levels of heat transfer resistance. Our simulations suggest a coupling between the mass transfer resistance and heat transfer resistance as the driving mechanism for self-preservation effect. We found that the hydrate is initially melted from the interface, and then a solid-like water layer with temperature-dependent structures is formed next to the hydrate interface that exhibits fractal feature, followed by an increase of mass transfer resistance for the diffusion of methane from hydrate region. Furthermore, our results indicate that heat transfer resistance is a more fundamental factor, since it facilitates the formation of the solid-like layer and hence inhibits the further dissociation of the hydrates. The self-preservation effect is found to be enhanced with the increase of pressure and particularly the decrease of temperature. Kinetic equations based on heat balance calculations is also developed to describe the self-preservation effect, which reproduces our simulation results well and provides an association between microscopic and macroscopic properties.

Two kinds of dry water (DW) particles are prepared by mixing water and hydrophobic silica particles with nanometer or micrometer dimensions, and the two DW particles are found to have similar size distributions regardless of the size of the silica shell. The CO2 uptake kinetics of DW with nanometer (nanoshell) and micrometer shells (microshell) are measured, and both uptake rate and capacity show the obvious size effect of the silica shell. The DW with a microshell possesses a larger uptake capacity, whereas the DW with a nanoshell has a faster uptake rate. By comparing the uptake kinetics of soluble NH3 and CO2 further, we found that the microshell enhances the stability and the dispersion degree of DW and the nanoshell offers a shorter path for the transit of guest gas into the water core. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulation is introduced to illustrate the nanosize effect of the silica shell on the initial step of the gas uptake. It is found that the concentration of gas molecules close to the silica shell is higher than that in the bulk water core. With the increase in the size of the silica shell, the amount of CO2 in the silica shell decreases, and it is easier for the gas uptake to reach steady state.