An inorganic–organic hybrid framework from the assembly of an electron-rich diphosphonate and electron-deficient tripyridyl moiety

The combination of an electron-rich zinc diphosphonate layer and electron-deficient 2,4,6-tri(4-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPT) generates a 3D inorganic–organic hybrid with an [–ED–EA–ED–EA–] arrangement (ED = electron donor and EA = electron acceptor), which exhibits a wide and rapid photoresponse upon exposure to the stimulus of sunlight, UV light and X-rays at ambient temperature. Notably, the coloration time is 0.1 s when exposed to UV light (320 nm) generated from a Xe-lamp (150 W).