Construction of a bicontinuous donor–acceptor hybrid material at the molecular level by inserting inorganic nanowires into porous MOFs

Herein, we report an unprecedented hybrid structure of electron-rich iodoplumbate nanowires precisely inserted into the periodic pores of electron-deficient pyridinium metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of semiconductive MOFs in situ loaded with inorganic semiconductive nanowires via a simple self-assembly method. Due to the dissimilar semiconductivities between the host and guest components, this hybrid also represents the first bicontinuous donor–acceptor hybrid at the molecular level based on host–guest interactions.