A new review published in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials examines how two families of engineered porous materials, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), are being used to prepare food samples and detect bisphenols, a group of industrial chemicals that frequently ends up in what people eat. The article, published open access on 29 October 2026, was authored by Mei-di Wang, Yu Zhou, Yuan Zhang and Xue-song Feng.
Bisphenols, often abbreviated BPs, are widely used industrial chemicals that commonly appear in food matrices because they migrate from packaging materials. The review describes them as endocrine-disrupting compounds that can pose potential risks to human health even at trace levels, which makes their reliable determination in food a critical analytical task.
The core problem the authors identify is one of scale and complexity. Bisphenols typically occur at very low concentrations in food, and the samples themselves, such as edible products and their packaging-derived contaminants, present complicated matrices. Effective enrichment and detection of these compounds therefore remain challenging, and the review frames MOFs and COFs as a response to precisely this difficulty.
MOFs and COFs belong to a broader class of framework materials built with large specific surface areas, tunable pore structures and abundant functional groups. According to the review, these structural features give the materials strong host–guest interactions with target molecules and allow efficient mass transfer, two properties that matter greatly when the goal is to pull trace contaminants out of a messy food sample.
In sample pretreatment, the review reports that these materials improve the extraction, enrichment and matrix cleanup of bisphenols. The authors survey their use across several established techniques, including solid-phase extraction, dispersive solid-phase extraction, magnetic micro-dispersive solid-phase extraction, and various microextraction methods. Each of these approaches relies on the framework material capturing bisphenol molecules from the sample before instrumental analysis.
The highlights accompanying the article point to specific material designs behind these applications. Magnetic MOFs are reported to enable fast magnetic micro-dispersive solid-phase extraction of bisphenols from food matrices, while amino-functionalized MOFs improve dispersive solid-phase extraction enrichment in complex foods. On the COF side, imine-linked COFs are highlighted for supporting solvent-saving solid-phase microextraction in food samples, an attribute relevant to reducing organic solvent consumption in routine analysis.
Beyond sample preparation, the review covers detection techniques in which MOFs and COFs play a role, including chromatography, sensing, mass spectrometry and other analytical methods. Two further highlights describe luminescent MOFs enabling rapid fluorescence detection of trace bisphenols, and molecularly imprinted polymer-modified COFs improving electrochemical sensing of bisphenol analogs.
The review also summarizes the preparation strategies and structural characteristics of these MOF- and COF-based materials, linking how the frameworks are synthesized to how they perform in pretreatment, sensing and spectrometry workflows. This organization allows the authors to connect material design choices, such as pore architecture and surface functionality, to analytical outcomes like extraction efficiency and detection sensitivity for bisphenols in food.
Finally, the authors discuss current challenges and future perspectives for MOF- and COF-based materials in food safety monitoring, offering what they describe as insights into the development of more efficient analytical materials. As a review article, the work consolidates recent developments in this field rather than presenting new experimental measurements, and it positions framework materials as a growing toolkit for laboratories tasked with detecting trace endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the food supply.
Subject of Research: Use of metal–organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks for sample preparation and detection of bisphenols in food
Article Title: Emerging MOF/COF-based platforms for sample preparation and detection of bisphenols in food
Article References: Wang, M.-D., Zhou, Y., Zhang, Y., & Feng, X.-S. (2026). Emerging MOF/COF-based platforms for sample preparation and detection of bisphenols in food. Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-026-02158-y
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1007/s42114-026-02158-y
Keywords: bisphenols, metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, food safety, sample preparation, solid-phase extraction, endocrine disruptors, mass spectrometry, electrochemical sensing, fluorescence detection, food analysis, MOF
