Antimicrobial MOFs

Infections caused by microbes constitute a severe risk to public health and the increasing resistance of pathogens to antibiotics has led to serious health problems in recent years. Scientific progress in nanotechnologies and materials science is allowing the production of new substances with intrinsic antimicrobial activity for new applications in the most varied technological sectors and to face the challenges of modern society. MOFs are porous crystalline compounds based on metal ions or clusters connected in a regular way by organic linkers, initially developed for applications in catalysis and in the absorption of gas. Over the past decade, MOFs have also been targeted for potential biomedical applications, such as delivery of biopharmaceuticals, antimicrobial protection, biosensing, biocatalysis, biobanking, and manipulation of cells and viruses. This review highlights the recent advances in the field of antimicrobial MOFs covering all the literature up to 2020, trying to give an all-encompassing picture of the potential offered by MOFs and composite materials containing MOFs in the field of antimicrobial materials. All the potential antimicrobial mechanisms identified so far and the decisive parameters in the design and production of antimicrobial MOFs are described. The challenges and limitations of current MOF-based systems will be critically examined and different research directions and innovative approaches to promote original antimicrobial and multifunctional composite materials will be discussed.