Encapsulation of Luminescent Guests to Construct Luminescent Metal–Organic Frameworks for Chemical Sensing

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), which are a class of coordination polymers constructed by metal ions or clusters with organic ligands, have emerged as exciting inorganic–organic hybrid materials with the superiorities of inherent crystallinity, adjustable pore size, clear structure, and high degree of functionalization. The MOFs have attracted much attention to develop good luminescent functional materials due to their inherent luminescent centers of both inorganic and organic photonic units. Furthermore, the pores within MOFs can also be used to encapsulate a large number of luminescent guest species, which provides a broader luminescent property for MOF materials. MOFs possess the incomparable multifunctional advantages of inorganic and organic luminescent materials. A large number of luminescent MOFs (LMOFs) have been synthesized for applications in sensing, white-light-emitting diodes (LED), photocatalysis, biomedicine, etc. This paper reviews the encapsulation of various luminescent guests such as lanthanide ions, dyes, quantum dots, and luminescent complexes in metal–organic frameworks to construct luminous sensors with single- or double-emission centers, as well as the research progress of these sensors in chemical sensing. Finally, the challenges in these fields were outlined and the prospects for future development were put forward.