MOF based luminescence tuning and chemical/physical sensing

•Luminescence processes of MOFs in combination with intrinsic MOF porosity.•Options to tune and enhance MOF luminescence.•Sensing based on luminescence changes by turn-off/turn-on and chromaticity shifts.•Sensing of small molecules (gases and liquids) and ions including biosensing.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been emerging as important multifunctional hybrid materials offering highly diversified properties due to an extensive number of available metal ions and organic linker molecules that constitute an extensively high number of framework structures and architectures. This review intends to give an overview covering the combination of MOFs and optical properties like luminescence as it opens an intriguing field ranging from the tuning of luminescence on the base of the constituting ligands and metals to a rapidly growing number of potential sensing applications by MOF luminescence. The possibility to utilize the dependence of an interaction of a chemical species with the MOF framework can thereby lead to significant changes in the luminescence, which provides an excellent observable used for sensing and detection.

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