Crystalline Metal‐Peptide Networks: Structures, Applications, and Future Outlook

Metal‐peptide networks (MPNs), which are assembled from short peptides and metal ions, are considered one of the most fascinating metal‐organic coordinated architectures because of their unique and complicated structures. Although MPNs have considerable potential for development into versatile materials, they have not been developed for practical applications because of several underlying limitations, such as designability, stability, and modifiability. In this review, we summarise several important milestones in the development of crystalline MPNs and thoroughly analyse their structural features, such as peptide sequence designs, coordination geometries, cross‐linking types, and network topologies. In addition, potential applications such as gas adsorption, guest encapsulation, and chiral recognition are introduced. We believe that this review is a useful survey that can provide insights into the development of new MPNs with more sophisticated structures and novel functions. Metal‐peptide networks (MPNs) assembled from short peptides and metal ions have attracted great attention due to their remarkable diversity and complexity. Herein, we introduce several crystalline MPNs along with detailed structural analyses. Underlying challenges and future outlooks in the research of MPNs are also discussed.