6. Conclusions and Outlook
As a new kind of crystalline molecular material, MOFs are emerging as a very effective tool for electrochemical sensing applications, because of the excellent advantages such as ultrahigh porosity, large surface areas, large pore volume, tunable structure, thermal and chemical stability, and chemical functionality. These electrochemical sensors possess some merits, as illustrated in Table 1. Firstly, the MOFs modified on the electrodes could be used as electrochemical signal probes and large amounts of redox metal ions provide high signals. Secondly, the MOFs could act as catalysts to catalyze the electrochemistry of redox mediators and high catalytic activity is obtained because of the abundant active sites. Thirdly, the MOFs could be employed as an ideal loading platform to load recognition probes or signal probes due to the rationally ordered structure and stable micropores. The specific identification of targets by the MOFs may be ascribed to the interactions via hydrogen bonding, π-π interactions, open metal sites, and van der Waals interactions. The incorporation of the heterogeneous nanostructured materials in the MOFs promotes the development of applications for the MOF-based materials in the area of electrochemical sensing.
