Advancements in nanoscale MOFs-based catalytic materials: Synthesis strategies and applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted extensive attention due to their high specific surface area, pore structure, rich ligand types, and various metal-ligand binding forms. In the process of heterogeneous catalysis, the structural advantages of MOFs materials have showed considerable performance improvement compared with conventional porous materials. However, the conventional MOFs materials are limited by the single active site, poor stability under extreme conditions, small inherent window of the crystal, and insufficient electrical conductivity, which hinder their further application in catalytic processes. Recently, novel composite catalysts based on MOFs materials have improved structural stability on the basis of inheriting their advantages, and effectively strengthened the catalytic performance for different reaction types by macro-preparation and micro-environment modulation. This review summarizes the synthesis strategies of MOFs-based catalytic materials, and the applications in thermocatalysis, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis. The structure, catalytic performance and catalytic mechanism of MOFs-based catalyst were discussed. Additionally, the review summarizes and prospects the future development direction of MOFs-based materials in the field of catalysis.