Metal-Organic Frameworks-Derived Functional Materials: Advances in Sensing Applications

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials for Chemical Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2026) | Viewed by 1917

Editors

School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China
Interests: metal-organic frameworks; metal oxides; gas sensors
Key Lab of Separation Science for Analytical Chemistry, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dalian 116023, China
Interests: metal oxides; gas sensors; analytical instruments

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to high specific surface areas, tuned pore sizes and morphologies, metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived functional materials have been enormously developed for fabricating sensors. However, the merits of sensor responses are not as obviously achieved compared with sensing materials prepared via conventional methods.

This Special Issue of Chemosensors serves to provide a platform for researchers to report results and findings in metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived functional materials for sensing applications (such as gas sensing), emphasizing the development of such materials specifically for sensing purposes. It includes numerical synthesis methods, structural investigation, device fabrication procedures, sensing measurements, sensing mechanisms, in situ/operando technique, theoretical calculation, and real sample testing.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

(1) Growth and synthesis of novel structural MOF-derived oxides for sensing applications;
(2) Novel characterization and analysis techniques (structural, electrical, optical, etc.) for MOF-derived sensing materials;
(3) Sensing techniques and applications, such as resistance-type gas sensors, field effect transistor (FET), quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), etc.), based on MOF-derived materials;
(4) In situ/operando techniques (in situ DRIFTS, operando Raman, in situ TEM, in situ XPS, in situ XRD, etc.) for investigating sensing mechanisms of MOF-derived materials;
(5) Theoretical calculation (first-principle theory, modeling and simulation) for optimizing MOF-derived sensing materials.

Dr. Wei Yang
Dr. Hu Meng
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • metal-organic frameworks
  • functional materials
  • sensing applications
  • structural morphologies
  • in situ/operando technique
  • theoretical calculation
  • real sample testing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 3359 KB  
Article
Ag-Functionalized ZIF-8-Derived Porous ZnO Nanocomposites for ppb-Level Acetone Detection
by Wenjie Bi, Jinmiao Zhu, Bin Zheng, Shiwei Yang, Chengzhi Ruan, Siyu Yu, Xinran Li, Yinuo Xu, Hongyu Yu, Yafei Xu and Shantang Liu
Chemosensors 2026, 14(4), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors14040093 - 9 Apr 2026
Viewed by 1600
Abstract
In this study, Ag-functionalized porous ZnO nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via pyrolysis of Ag-loaded ZIF-8 precursors. The structural and surface properties of the materials were systematically characterized using XRD, XPS, FESEM, and HRTEM analyses. A gas sensor fabricated from the optimized 3.0 wt% [...] Read more.
In this study, Ag-functionalized porous ZnO nanocomposites were successfully synthesized via pyrolysis of Ag-loaded ZIF-8 precursors. The structural and surface properties of the materials were systematically characterized using XRD, XPS, FESEM, and HRTEM analyses. A gas sensor fabricated from the optimized 3.0 wt% Ag–ZnO sample exhibited a significantly enhanced response (Ra/Rg = 103) toward 100 ppm acetone at an operating temperature of 275 °C, which is approximately 2.51 times greater than that of pristine ZnO. The sensor also demonstrated rapid response/recovery times (6 s/7 s), excellent linearity over a wide concentration range (500 ppb–200 ppm), good selectivity against common interfering VOCs, and stable performance, with over 95% response retention after 30 days. The improved sensing performance is attributed to the hierarchical porous structure derived from ZIF-8 and the increased oxygen vacancy concentration and chemisorbed oxygen species induced by Ag loading, which collectively increase surface reaction activity. This work provides an effective strategy for constructing noble metal-modified porous ZnO materials for sensitive and reliable acetone detection. Full article
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