Nanoarchitectured Metal Phosphates and Phosphonates: A New Material Horizon toward Emerging Applications

Metal phosphate- and phosphonate-based nanoarchitectured materials offer a unique opportunity to design hierarchically porous nanomaterials consisting of interconnected micropores, mesopores, and macropores. Due to their strong affinity toward the metal centers, the phosphate and phosphonate moieties act as ligand sites/linkers to form a wide spectrum of nanoarchitectured materials. In this review, we have summarized the synthetic routes in designing key microporous and mesoporous phosphate and phosphonate molecular sieves. Designing novel nanoarchitectures of metal phosphate- and phosphonate-based microporous and mesoporous materials for catalysis, adsorption, optoelectronics, electrochemical cells, fuel cells, and biomedical applications will further enrich the chemistry of these porous solids in the future.