Metal-Organic Framework Based Sensors for Benzene Vapor

Sensing of benzene vapor is a hot spot due to the volatile drastic carcinogen even at trace concentration. However, achieving convenient and rapid detection is still a challenge. As a sort of functional porous material, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been developed as detection sensors by adsorbing benzene vapor and converting it into other signals (fluorescence intensity/wavelength, chemiresistive, weight or color, etc.). Supramolecular interaction between benzene molecules and the host framework, aperture size/shape and structural flexibility are influential factors in the performance of MOF-based sensors. Therefore, enhancing the host-guest interactions between the host framework and benzene molecules, or regulating the diffusion rate of benzene molecules by changing the aperture size/shape and flexibility of the host framework to enhance the detection signal are effective strategies for constructing MOF-based sensors. This concept highlights several types of MOF-based sensors for the detection of benzene vapor.