Luminescent Lanthanide Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract

More and more attention has been paid to the design and synthesis of the lanthanide metal–organic frameworks (LnMOFs). Their physicochemical properties were investigated deeply, especially in terms of the luminescent properties. Lanthanide ions, used as luminescence centers, in MOFs enable tuning options that exceed all other metals of the periodic table of the elements. This chapter explains the basic principles of lanthanide luminescence in advance, which will help the readers to understand the luminescent properties of the subsequent LnMOFs. Single-Ln3+ LnMOFs show fundamental luminescent phenomenon and law. Furthermore, mixed-Ln3+ LnMOFs exhibit significant ability of tunable white light emission and temperature measurement. Representative publication of LnMOFs with NIR luminescence and upconversion luminescence is also important to discuss here. Furthermore, bulk LnMOFs have been scaled down to the nanoregime to form nanoscale LnMOFs, which will enable their use in a broad range of applications, including drug delivery, bioimaging, and molecular sense.