A luminescent triarylboron ligand functionalized with three carboxylic groups has been synthesized and fully characterized. Its use in boron-containing metal-organic frameworks (B-MOFs) has been demonstrated by the synthesis and isolation of a (ZnB)-B-II-MOF compound (B-MOF-1). The crystals of B-MOF-1 belong to the cubic space group F432 with 8-fold interpenetrated networks and similar to 21% void space. B-MOF-1 exhibits blue fluorescence and is capable of modest gas sorption of N-2, argon, and CO2.