Engineering of nanoscale coordination polymers with biomolecules for advanced applications

Nanoscale coordination polymers (NCPs) have shown extraordinary advantages in various research areas due to their structural diversity and multifunctionality. Recently, integration of biomolecules with NCPs received extensive attention and the formed hybrid materials exhibit superior properties over the individual NCPs or biomolecules. In this review, the state-of-the-art of approaches to engineer NCPs with different types of guest biomolecules, such as amino acids, nucleic acids, enzymes and lipids are systematically introduced. Additionally, advanced applications of these biomolecule-NCP composites in the areas of sensing, catalysis, molecular imaging and therapy are thoroughly summarized. Finally, current challenges and prospects are also discussed.