Historical Developments in Synthesis Approaches and Photocatalytic Perspectives of Metal-Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have witnessed fast-growing development in inorganic chemistry as well as material chemistry due to their attractive tunable property, structural specificity, high surface area, and porosity of 3D structures. The conventional semiconductor nature of MOFs is dependent on the photoactive organic ligands and their optimization with incorporated active metal center ion, which have enjoyed these properties in the photocatalytic mechanism via efficient photogenerated charge carriers under the illumination of sunlight (UV-Visible) and other different types of lights. To improve photocatalytic efficiency, a wide range of MOFs could be easily designed to cover and harvest UV irradiation from the sunlight. A wide variety of MOFs have been designed and synthesized as photocatalysts for photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, photocatalytic specific redox in organic synthesis, and function in photoelectrodes. In addition, the mechanisms and current challenges for MOFs in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants will be thoroughly discussed. This chapter discusses recent research advances in the use of MOFs as emerging photocatalysts.