Book review of “Lanthanide metal-organic frameworks”

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are chemical systems comprising organic molecules coordinated to metal ions or clusters to form one-, two-, or three-dimensional structural arrangement (Figure 1). The use of lanthanide (Ln) ions results in a specific class of Ln-MOFs possessing unique physico-chemical properties owing to a large atomic magnetic moment, strong spin-orbital coupling, high coordination number, and abundant coordinationmodes of the Ln ions. Therefore, this research field attracted much attention of a scientific community, hence generating a vast number of research papers and reviews devoted to Ln-MOFs. However, lack of a book addressing exclusively the Ln-MOF systems and covering comprehensively all the major aspects of this research field considerably hinders popularization of this frontier multidisciplinary science as for a general scientific audience and for researchers specializing in other research areas related to MOFs. In connection with this, “Lanthanide Metal-Organic Framework” edited by Peng Cheng fills this gap timely to give an excellent overview of the Ln-MOF systems hence covering the structural diversity, preparation methods, physico-chemical properties, and various applications. In particular, this book consists of nine chapters written by well-known specialists and focuses on all major research topics for Ln-MOFs including synthetic routes for homonuclear, heteronuclear, and nanoscaled complexes, various properties such as porosity, magnetism, chirality, luminescence,