Metal organic frameworks for sensing applications

•The applicability of MOFs is extensive due to their properties.•Progress of MOF research in sensing application is astonishing.•This review discusses the potential applicability of MOF sensing in industry.

A metal organic framework (MOF) represents a new class of hybrid material built from metal ions with well-defined coordination geometry and organic bridging ligands. Over the past few years, MOFs have attracted a great deal of attention due to their intriguing framework architecture, topology, and optical properties. MOFs have provided promising perspectives in various research fields, such as catalysis, energy storage, drug-delivery systems, non-linear optics, and gas storage. Recently, the application of MOFs was further extended to cover new, interesting fields of sensing toward various target components, including small molecules, solvents, pesticides, explosives, and biological markers. In this review, we focus on recent progress achieved in MOF research with respect to general sensing principles and analytical performance. This review also discusses future industrial applications in sensing that are of immense research interest.