Scheme 1 The solvothermal reaction of an organic ligand with cadmium nitrate in dimethylformamide at 105 °C for 24 hours results in the formation of colorless and uniformly-shaped crystals. These crystals have two differently-sized nanochannels with diameters of ~1.0 and ~0.7 nm. The parallel and continuous channels can be selectively functionalized with pairs of donor-acceptor chromophores resulting in dichromic crystals that are suitable for light-conversion applications. ) (C) Experimental powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) spectrum (black), simulated PXRD spectrum of the single-crystal X-ray data (red), and the fit (pink).