Environmental pollution analysis based on the luminescent metal organic frameworks: A review

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a unique class of crystalline solids comprised of metal cations (or metal clusters) and organic ligands that have shown a wide variety of applications. Recently, due to the unique luminescent properties of MOFs, the research and development of these materials have become one of the most intensely and broad areas. Thanks to the crystalline nature, diverse and easily modifiable structures, luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs) have been applied to lighting, information storage, food quality control, biological monitoring, chemical threat detection, and chemical sensing for environmental analysis. This review briefly introduces the main types of LMOFs and summarizes its application in environmental pollutant detection, including the sensing of temperature, pH, nitroaromatic explosives, small molecules, metallic cations, as well as the inorganic anion.