Luminescent Properties and Applications of Metal-Organic Frameworks

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are very promising multifunctional luminescent materials because of their inherent advantages of both organic linkers and inorganic metal ions, as well as the tailorability in terms of structure, dimension, size, and shape. Furthermore, the metal centers, organic linkers, metal-organic charge transfer, and guest molecules within porous MOFs all can potentially generate luminescence. Such uniqueness can allow us to generate luminescent MOF materials with systematically varied luminescence properties which are crucial for the lighting, display, and optical devices. Although luminescent MOFs are still in their infancy, the currently available results have unambiguously demonstrated that the design and construction of MOFs for luminescent functionality is very active, and hundreds of papers published in the last few years indicate that this interest is still increasing. This chapter outlines the basic principles and luminescence origins of MOF materials and then describes the latest developments in luminescent MOFs and their applications in light-emitting devices, chemical sensors, and biomedicine. As a conclusion, several evident research trends were proposed which are particularly promising but will require concerted effort for success.