It is no exaggeration to say that modern life could not exist in its present form without existing porous materials such as zeolite and activated charcoal, whose applications range from use as catalysts and separators in the petrochemical industry to purification and deodorization of water supplies. These microporous materials tend to perform their intended function reasonably well, whether it be separation, occlusion, adsorption, or release. However, technical limitations in the ability to precisely control pore size have presented obstacles to R&D into more sophisticated and multi-functional materials capable of excellent performance in several of these functions. MOFs offer a new way forward: the ability to precisely customize the ligand bonds in their molecular design allows engineers to create new materials with more complex structures and higher-order functionality. Moreover, the utilization of metal complexes in particular supports the development of new classes of innovative materials, straddling the boundary between organic and inorganic compounds, and complicated structures that would be difficult to synthesize by conventional means.