Luminescent nanoscale metal-organic frameworks for chemical sensing

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a fascinating class of crystalline materials constructed from self-assembly of metal cations/clusters and organic ligands. Both metal and organic components can be used to generate luminescence, and can further interact via antenna effect to increase the quantum yield, providing a versatile platform for chemical sensing based on luminescence emission. Moreover, MOFs can be miniaturized to nanometer scale to form nano-MOF (NMOF) materials, which exhibit many advantages over conventional bulk MOFs in terms of the facile tailorability of compositions, sizes and morphologies, the high dispersity in a wide variety of medium, and the intrinsic biocompatibility. This review will detail the development of NMOF materials as chemical sensors, including the synthetic methodologies for designing NMOF sensory materials, their luminescent properties and potential sensing applications. (C) 2015 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.