Thin film materials have been used widely in semiconductor devices, including solar cells, transistors, light emitting diodes, light crystal displays, smart windows, chips as well as temperature and gas sensors. As multilayer materials with nanometers in thickness, metal–organic framework (MOF) thin films have been increasingly investigated due to their potential applications in molecular recognition/separation, catalysis, sensors and devices. In this review, we will summarize recent works focusing on epitaxial growth and applications of surface-mounted MOF thin films (SURMOFs) and encapsulated SURMOFs on substrate surfaces. Such oriented, compact and homogenous thin films provide a promising model for studying the crucial intrinsic properties in coordination chemistry, growth mechanism, chiral chemistry and the guest diffusion behavior in MOFs system. Their related applications on molecular adsorption and separation, optical applications, organic field effect transistors and catalysis are also descripted in this review. This review will be of interest to researchers on attempting to design other multifunctional MOF thin films and those engage in the extension of thin films to particle applications of sensors and devices.

薄膜材料已广泛用于半导体器件，包括太阳能电池，晶体管，发光二极管，液晶显示器，智能窗，芯片以及温度和气体传感器。作为厚度为纳米的多层材料，金属有机骨架（MOF）薄膜由于在分子识别/分离，催化，传感器和设备中的潜在应用而受到越来越多的研究。在这篇综述中，我们将总结最近的工作，这些工作集中在外延生长以及表面安装的MOF薄膜（SURMOF）和封装SURMOF在基板表面上的应用上。这种定向，致密且均质的薄膜为研究配位化学，生长机理，MOFs体系中的手性化学和客体扩散行为。本文还描述了它们在分子吸附和分离，光学应用，有机场效应晶体管和催化方面的相关应用。对于尝试设计其他多功能MOF薄膜以及那些将薄膜扩展到传感器和设备的粒子应用的研究人员来说，这篇综述将引起他们的兴趣。