Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), as one type of famous porous material with many advantages (good crystallinity, design ability, facile modification and flexibility), show a wide range of applications in gas adsorption and separation, ion exchange, fluorescent recognition, nonlinear optics, molecular magnets and ferroelectrics, heterogeneous catalysis, semiconductors, and so on. The research of MOFs span many disciplines, such as inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, coordination chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, crystal engineering and materials science. The design, synthesis, and applications of MOFs have attracted tremendous attention in broad scientific areas. Therefore, it is worth releasing a professional publication to elucidate so many related issues. In this chapter, we start with the introduction of MOFs, including the definition, classification, concepts, terminologies, and some well-known research. Then we carefully summarize the design and synthesis of MOFs from three aspects of raw materials, synthetic methods, and design strategy, aiming to get the goal of controllable syntheses of MOFs. Following this, we report the developments and applications of MOF materials in adsorption and separation, organic catalysis, luminescence, and drug delivery. Finally, we briefly outline challenges and perspectives of MOF materials, and provide some promising research subjects in this area.
