Solid-state NMR studies of host-guest chemistry in metal-organic frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are an emerging class of porous materials with potential applications in a wide variety of fields. The knowledge about the detailed interactions between MOFs and guest molecules is critical for the understanding of their structure-property relationships at working conditions. In this review, recent advances for solid-state NMR studies of host-guest chemistry of MOFs in the application fields of gaseous adsorption, chemical separation, drug delivery, chemical sensor, and heterogeneous catalysis were briefly introduced. The adsorption property and dynamic behavior of adsorbed gases confined inside the MOFs channels were elucidated from variable-temperature (VT) solid-state NMR. Moreover, the detailed mechanism of gas-phase and liquid -phase adsorptive separations on MOFs adsorbents was un-covered on the basis of solid-state NMR measurements. Multi -nuclear 1H, 13C, 15N, and 31P MAS NMR was utilized to explore the interactions between drug molecules and MOFs at the atomic scale to monitor the controlled release process of drugs. Furthermore, the investigation of the interactions be-tween guest molecules and MOFs in the application areas of chemical sensor, toxic chemicals removal, and catalysis using solid-state NMR was briefly discussed as well.