Applications of MOFs and Their Composite Materials in Light- Driven Redox Reactions

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) also known as porous coordination polymers (PCP) are a type of hybrids porous crystalline systems formed from metallic clusters and organic ligand. Due to their capacity for structural and functional adjustment, they have had a growing interest in chemistry and related areas in the last decade. MOFs have found a promising niche in photocatalysis, because of their excellent tunable structure and optical properties. Even though their applications in photocatalysis are in a childhood stage, but in the last five years, they have shown an exponential increase in the number of publications, very close to that in heterogeneous catalysis. Their applications in photocatalysis can be grouped into three categories: energy (hydrogen production, CO2 conversion), environment (degradation of organic/inorganic pollutants), and organic synthesis. This chapter reviews recent investigations in the synthesis of MOFs pristine and their modifications and the impact they have had when applied in the photocatalytic reactions mentioned above. Following a brief introduction on the fundamentals of MOFs and their applications, the synthesized new MOFs were classified according to the metal cluster belonging to groups 4, 8 and 9–12 of the periodic table. Subsequently, MOFs-composites including metals, semiconductors, and multicomponent were analyzed in terms of preparation methods, properties, and reaction mechanisms involved in the selected photocatalytic reactions.