Metal-organic framework-based nanomaterials for biomedical applications

In the past decade, nanoscale metal-organic frameworks (nMOFs) have drawn a great attention due to their high porosity, wide range of pore shapes, tunable frameworks and relatively low toxic. With the development of nanotechnology, many researchers studied the synthesis, characterization, functionalization and biotoxicity of nMOFs, and a more thorough understanding was developed about numerous nMOFs as promising platforms for biomedical applications. This review highlights the up-to-date progress of nMOFs related to their bio-applications such as drug delivery, bioimaging, biosensing and biocatalysis, and the common surface modification methods were classified into four categories: covalent post-synthetically modification, coordinative post-synthetically modification, noncovalent post-synthetically modification and modification on the external surface. At the same time, the challenges and perspectives of nMOFs were discussed as well. (C) 2019 Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.