Advancing luminescent Sensing: Harnessing Metal-Organic frameworks for enhanced detection and analysis

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials composed of metal ions or clusters coordinated with organic linkers. Their structural and functional properties, such as large surface area, tunable pore size, and adjustable luminescence, can be tailored through careful selection of metal centers, organic ligands, and reaction conditions. These attributes make MOFs highly effective in applications including gas storage, catalysis, energy storage, and sensing. This review emphasizes luminescent metal-organic frameworks (LMOFs), which exhibit photoluminescence arising from their metal centers, organic linkers, or encapsulated guest molecules. Their tunable luminescence enables sensitive and selective detection of diverse analytes, making them promising tools for environmental pollutant sensing. LMOFs have demonstrated exceptional performance in detecting pollutants such as pesticides, antibiotics, explosives, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), toxic gases, small molecules, radioactive ions, and heavy metals, with advantages including high sensitivity, selectivity, and recyclability. To introduce the fundamentals of MOFs, this article outlines their nature, classification, and nomenclature. It also provides an overview of synthetic methods, along with modifications aimed at optimizing their properties. The review highlights recent advancements in MOF-based luminescent sensors and their applications in environmental monitoring. By summarizing the progress and challenges in MOF research, this mini-review aims to inspire further development of luminescent MOFs and their practical applications in addressing environmental contamination.