Semi‐Automatic Deposition of Oriented Cu(OH) 2 Nanobelts for the Heteroepitaxial Growth of Metal–Organic Framework Films

Processing oriented metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as thin films is a key challenge for their application to device fabrication. However, typical fabrication methods cannot generate precisely oriented crystals on commercially relevant scales (i.e., cm ²). This limits access to applications that require anisotropic functional properties (e.g., separation, optics, and electronics). Currently, highly oriented copper-based MOFs are synthesized via the addition of the organic MOF component to an ethanolic solution of manually aligned Cu(OH) ₂ nanobelt films. In this work, the optimization of a semi-automatic method for the fabrication of precisely oriented MOF films that affords a 100% yield of high quality ceramic films at the centimeter scale is reported. This improved fabrication protocol will facilitate the progress of heteroepitaxially grown MOFs for molecular separators and micro-opto-electronic devices.