Recent advances in metal-organic frameworks and derived multifunctional materials for photocatalytic applications

Photocatalysis has emerged as a highly promising approach to provide continuous and sustainable energy for addressing energy crisis and environmental-pollution issues. However, the development of photocatalysts to meet the energy demand and industrial production remains enormously challenging. Among the developed photocatalysts, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and MOF-derived nanomaterials exhibit excellent properties, such as high specific surface area, porosity, and tunability. In this review article, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent progress in MOFs and MOF-derived multifunctional materials to highlight their significant applications in advanced photocatalysts, including environmental remediation, hydrogen evolution, conversion of CO₂ and H₂O₂ production. It covers fundamental principles of MOFs and modifications over the MOFs and MOF-derived materials in photocatalytic fields. Moreover, the challenges and future prospects of MOFs and MOF-derived photocatalysts are systematically analyzed and summarized. It is anticipated that the review would fill a critical gap in the rational design and exploration of MOFs and MOF-derived photocatalysts for achieving highly efficient photocatalytic applications.