Metal−Organic Frameworks for Fluorescent Detection of Biomolecules

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are organic-inorganic hybrid materials with intramolecular pores formed by the self-assembly of organic ligands and metal ions or clusters through coordination bonds. In MOFs, the arrangement of organic ligands and metal ions or clusters has obvious directionality, which can form different frame pore structures, thus showing various adsorption properties, optical properties, electromagnetic properties, etc. On the basis of their properties, MOFs have shown great attractive and potential applications in imaging applications and biological sensing. Metal ions/clusters, organic ligands and loaded guest molecules of MOFs can be used as fluorescent emission centers, and can produce fluorescence response to specific analytes. In this chapter, strategies to fabricate MOF-based luminescent biomolecule sensing platforms will be summarized. Furthermore, MOFs for in vitro sensing and intracellular imaging will be introduced. The future perspectives and potential challenges of MOFs for fluorescence detection of biomolecules were discussed.