Applications of Functional Metal-Organic Frameworks in Biosensors

Abstract

In recent decades, fast advancements in the fields of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are providing unprecedented opportunities for the development of novel functional MOFs for various biosensing applications. Exciting progress is achieved due to the combination of MOFs with various functional components, which introduces novel structures and new features to the MOFs-based biosensing applications, such as higher stability, higher sensitivity, higher flexibility, and higher specificity. This review aims to be a comprehensive summary of the most recent advances in the development of functional MOFs for various biosensing applications, placing special attention on important contributions in recent 3 years. In this review, the most recent developments in design and synthesis of functional MOFs for biosensing applications are summarized. MOFs-based biosensing applications are outlined according to the central roles of MOFs in biosensors, which include carriers of sensitive elements, enzyme-mimic elements, electrochemical signaling, optical signaling, and gas sensing. Finally, the current challenges and future development trends of functional MOFs for biosensing applications are proposed and discussed.

Keywords: biosensors; electrochemical sensors; metal-organic frameworks; sensitive elements; zeolitic imidazolate framework-8.