Positive cooperative binding, a phenomenon
prevalent in biological
processes, holds great appeal for the design of highly sensitive responsive
molecules and materials. It has been demonstrated that metal–organic
frameworks (MOFs) can show positive cooperative adsorption to the
benefit of gas separation, but potential binding cooperativity is
largely ignored in the study of sensory MOFs. Here, we report the
first demonstration of positive cooperative protonation of a MOF and
the relevant pH response in fluorescence and proton conduction. The
MOF is built of Zr–O clusters and bipyridyl-based tetracarboxylate
linkers and has excellent hydrolytic stability. It shows a unique
pH response that features two synchronous abrupt turn-off and turn-on
fluorescent transitions. The abrupt transitions, which afford high
sensitivity to small pH fluctuations, are due to cooperative protonation
of the pyridyl sites with a Hill coefficient of 1.6. The synchronous
dual-emission response, which leads to visual color change, is ascribable
to proton-triggered switching between (n, π*) and (π,
π*) emissions. The latter emission can be quenched by electron
donating anion-dependent through photoinduced electron transfer and
ground-state charge transfer. Associated with cooperative protonation,
the proton conductivity of the MOF is abruptly enhanced at low pH
by two orders, but overhigh acid concentration is adverse because
excessive anions can interrupt the conducting networks. Our work shows
new perspectives of binding cooperativity in MOFs and should shed
new light on the development of responsive fluorescent MOFs and proton
conductive materials.