Recent Advances and Challenges in Selective Environmental Applications of Metal−Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are an evolving class of crystalline porous materials that have emerged as a recent research hotspot in material science. MOFs possess varied structural as well as physical and chemical functional properties such as porosity, stability, surface area. Such potential and multifunctional properties of MOFs make it preferable over conventionally used technologies.Recent advanced developments in this field focus on computational screenings, biosensing, adsorption, thermal energy storage and photolysis of water to generate Hydrogen by using MOFs. Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have been used for the removal of a vast range of substances from the environment ranging from heavy metal ions (Cr, Hg, Pb, As and Cd), persistent organic pollutants (dyes, phenols, herbicides and pesticides), radionuclides (Xe, Ur, Th, Sr, Cs and I2), and pathogens to greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) which pose a great threat to the ecosystem because of their harmful impacts on living beings and their surroundings. The ability of MOFs to adsorb heavy metals, to adsorb and photo degrade persistent organic pollutants, to sequester carbon dioxide and other substancessuch as radionuclides in order to remove them from surroundings has proven to be useful and has potential to be scaled up for industrial applications thus making them a class of material most useful in the environmental sector. Hereby in this manuscript, the recent environmental applications of MOF based materials have been discussed along with challenges and future prospects.