Self-°©‐assembled metal-°©‐organic polyhedra (MOPs): Opportunities in biomedical applications

Abstract

Self-assembly is a powerful synthetic tool that has enabled chemists to construct numerous, structurally complex, supermolecules of various shapes, functionality, and dimensions from relatively simple precursors. Metal-organic polyhedra (MOPs) are an emerging family of self-assembled supermolecules that have intriguing structures and tailored functionality. During the last decade, research in this area have rapidly evolved and interest is now directed towards fine tuning and tailoring such structures targeting applications in sensing, catalysis, and most recently, in the biomedical field. Three examples of MOPs of interest showing promising potentials for biomedical applications are described. The focus of this article is to shine some light on the potentials of MOPs in biomedical applications, which merit further investigation and evaluation.