Linker Engineering of Copper-Based 2D Conductive Metal-Organic Frameworks for Modular Photo-Mediated Properties and Multimodal Antibacterial Effects.

Photoactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have gained increasing attention in advanced photocatalysis and phototherapeutic applications. However, these MOFs suffer from insufficient structural tunability, which originates from the use of photoactive precursors with limited light absorption ranges or the incorporation of inorganic semiconductors to enhance light-harvesting performance. Therefore, the fabrication of intrinsic semiconducting MOFs with broadband light absorption and tunable photophysical properties represents a crucial endeavor for advancing photo-based technologies. Herein, we report a series of antibacterial agents derived from two-dimensional conductive metal-organic frameworks (2D c-MOFs) via linker engineering, employing commercially available linkers with distinct aromatic cores, namely tetrahydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone (THQ) and hexahydroxytriphenylene (HHTP). All three materials display broadband light-harvesting and good photothermal conversion capacity, and further exhibit light-enhanced and structural-dependent antibacterial activity. Mechanistic studies reveal that their measurable differences in antibacterial efficacy can be ascribed to linker-mediated variations in structural porosity, stability, and electronic delocalization that govern their photoelectronic properties and photocatalytic pathways. These 2D c-MOFs offer a materials paradigm and mechanistic basis for tailoring photo-mediated properties and multimodal antibacterial effects, and provide valuable insights for advanced photocatalysis and phototherapeutic applications.