Gas Sensors Based on Copper-Containing Metal-Organic Frameworks, Coordination Polymers, and Complexes

In the last years, chemical research has allowed the obtainment of a large number of new sensing compounds useful in diverse interest areas related to health, environment, food, automotive, and steel industries, among others. Taking into account the interest and demand of sensors on a large scale and the urgent need to reduce the size of devices to nanometric scale, coordination compounds (CCs) -and more specifically those based on copper- have gained full acceptance. CCs present exciting characteristics such as (i) dynamic structures, (ii) ability to form an immense variety of porous structures, or (iii) easy nano processing. Besides, copper is abundant, and an essential ion in the human body with no high toxicity at reachable detectable concentrations. Just this one element copper allows us to obtain porous, non-porous, optoelectronics, and/or magnetic-sensitive compounds that can detect a highly varied range of gases in different devices at economical costs. Several studies show how the properties of this type of compounds can be improved depending on their synthesis conditions or by the technology used in the sensor fabrication.