Metal-organic frameworks as stationary phases for chromatography and solid phase extraction: A review

Analytical chemistry is involved in many areas of human activities for the separation of complex mixtures. One of the most common and popular technique is chromatography, which is based on different affinities of the compounds with the mobile and stationary phases. However, with the progress of chemical industry, modern stationary phases are not always able to solve the upcoming tasks. Thus, there is a demand in the development of new materials possessing advantages over commercial ones. Porous hybrid solids such as Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are good candidates to solve this problem due to their unique physico-chemical properties. This review focuses on the implementation of native and modified MOFs and the comparison of their application in gas, liquid chromatography, and sample preparation (solid-phase extraction). We discuss the progresses and main results obtained until now, summarize the main advantages and current limitations of each application and discuss the possible future developments of these solids.