Metal-Organic Frameworks as Sensory Materials and Imaging Agents

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of hybrid materials self-assembled from organic bridging ligands and metal ion/cluster connecting points. The combination of a variety of organic linkers, metal ions/clusters, and structural motifs can lead to an infinite array of new materials with interesting properties for many applications. In this Forum Article, we discuss the design and applications of MOFs in chemical sensing and biological imaging. The first half of this article focuses on the development of MOFs as chemical sensors by highlighting how unique attributes of MOFs can be utilized to enhance sensitivity and selectivity. We also discuss some of the issues that need to be addressed in order to develop practically useful MOF sensors. The second half of this article focuses on the design and applications of nanoscale MOFs (NMOFs) as imaging contrast agents. NMOFs possess several interesting attributes, such as high cargo loading capacity, ease of postmodification, tunable size and shape, and intrinsic biodegradability, to make them excellent candidates as imaging contrast agents. We discuss the use of representative NMOFs in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-ray computed tomography (CT), and optical imaging. Although still in their infancy, we believe that the compositional tunability and mild synthetic conditions of NMOF imaging agents should greatly facilitate their further development for clinical translation.