Metal-organic Frameworks and their Derived Structures for Photocatalytic Water Splitting

Abstract

Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources and may cause environmental pollution. One of the appropriate solutions is to develop clean and renewable sources of energy as an alternative to fossil fuels. Environmental pollution and lack of renewable energy sources are two significant problems affecting the current life of human society and economic progress. Researchers have addressed semiconductor-oriented heterogeneous photo-electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis by the fuel cells to solve these crises. Photocatalytic water splitting is a promising approach in resolving the energy crisis. This process involves harvesting solar light, charge transfer and separation, and evaluation of catalytic reactions of H2 and O2. In this regard, the main challenge is to find an efficient, environmental-friendly, cost-effective, and easily fabricated photocatalyst with high stability and corrosion resistance in different media. Thanks to their tunable structure, structural flexibility, high specific surface area, tunable pores, and unsaturated metal sites, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) could be an efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen production under UV, NIR, and visible radiation. Therefore, MOFs and MOFs-based compounds are widely utilized as alternatives for expensive commercial catalysts developed based on rare elements such as Pt and Au. They can also be employed as precursors for the synthesis of different types of materials with different structures, sizes, and morphologies. This chapter summarizes MOF-based photocatalysts for the splitting of water are MOFs modification strategies.