Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are an interesting and useful class of coordination polymers, constructed from metal ion/cluster nodes and functional organic ligands through coordination bonds, and have attracted extensive research interest during the past decades. Due to the unique features of diverse compositions, facile synthesis, easy surface functionalization, high surface areas, adjustable porosity, and tunable biocompatibility, MOFs have been widely used in hydrogen/methane storage, catalysis, biological imaging and sensing, drug delivery, desalination, gas separation, magnetic and electronic devices, nonlinear optics, water vapor capture, etc. Notably, with the rapid development of synthetic methods and surface functionalization strategies, smart MOF‐based nanocomposites with advanced bio‐related properties have been designed and fabricated to meet the growing demands of MOF materials for biomedical applications. This work outlines the synthesis and functionalization and the recent advances of MOFs in biomedical fields, including cargo (drugs, nucleic acids, proteins, and dyes) delivery for cancer therapy, bioimaging, antimicrobial, biosensing, and biocatalysis. The prospects and challenges in the field of MOF‐based biomedical materials are also discussed.

New strategies that can simultaneously detect and remove highly toxic environmental pollutants such as heavy metal ions are still in urgent need. Herein, through supramolecular host–guest interactions, a fluorescent supramolecular polymer has been facilely constructed from a newly designed [2]­biphenyl-extended pillar[6]­arene equipped with two thymine sites as arms (H) and a tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-bridged bis­(quaternary ammonium) guest (G) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property. Interestingly, supramolecular assembly-induced emission enhancement (SAIEE) could be switched on upon addition of Hg2+ into the above-mentioned supramolecular polymer system to generate spherical-like supramolecular nanoparticles, due to the restriction of intramolecular rotation (RIR)-related AIE feature of G. Significantly, this supramolecular polymer with integrated modalities has been successfully used for real-time detection and removal of toxic heavy metal Hg2+ ions from water with quick response, high selectivity, and rapid adsorption rates, which could be efficiently regenerated and recycled without any loss via a simple treatment with Na2S. The newly developed supramolecular polymer system combines the inherent rigid and spacious cavity of novel extended-pillarene host with the AIE characteristics of TPE-based guest, suggesting a great potential in the treatment of heavy metal pollution and environmental sustainability.

Because of long-range order and high chemical purity, organic crystals have exhibit unique properties and attracted a lot of interest for application in solid-state lasers. As optical gain materials, they exhibit high stimulated emission cross section and broad tunable wavelength emission as similar to their amorphous counterpart; moreover, high purity and high order give them superior properties such as low scattering trap densities, high thermal stability, as well as highly polarized emission. As electronic materials, they are potentially able to support high current densities, thus making it possible to realize current driven lasers. This paper mainly describes recent research progress in organic semiconductor laser crystals. The building molecules, crystal growth methods, as well as their stimulated emission characteristics related with crystal structures are introduced; in addition, the current state-of-the-art in the field of crystal laser devices is reviewed. Furthermore, recent advances of crystal lasers at the nanoscale and single crystal light-emitting transistors (LETs) are presented. Finally, an outlook and personal view is provided on the further developments of laser crystals and their applications.

Incorporating synthetic macrocycles with unique structures and distinct conformations into conjugated macrocycle polymers (CMPs) can endowthe resulting materials with great potentials in gas uptake and pollutant adsorption. Here, four CMPs (CMP-n, n = 1-4) capable of reversibly capturing iodine and efficiently separating carbon dioxide are constructed from per-triflate functionalized leaning tower[6]arene (LT6-OTf) and [2]biphenyl-extended pillar[6]arene (BpP6-OTf) via Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira-Hagihara cross-coupling reaction. Intriguingly,o wing to the appropriate cavity sizeo f LT6-OTf and the numerous aromatic rings in the framework, the newly designed CMP-4 possesses an outstanding I 2 affinity with alarge uptake capacity of 208 wt %i nv apor and ag reat removal efficiency of 94 %i na queous solutions.T oo ur surprise,w ith no capacity to accommodate nitrogen, CMP-2 constructed from BpP6-OTf is able to specifically capture carbon dioxide at ambient conditions.