Chapter 16 - Metal-organic framework as an efficient photocatalyst

Abstract

Rapid advancement in the industrial sector provides us numerous facilities including food items, electrical appliances, synthetic clothes, polymer-based materials, and advanced equipments. During manufacturing, these industries interfere with nature’s quality and pollute air, water, and soil as well. For the treatment of polluted water, photocatalysis technique has been implemented by using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as an efficient and reliable material. MOFs possess unique physical and chemical properties such as large surface area, porous structure, more active sites, and photo-activated nature. The most popular photocatalytic reactions performed by MOFs under UV/Visible radiations include the degradation of organic dyes, pesticides, antibiotics, reduction of CO2, and production of H2. In this study, the introduction of MOFs, general mechanism of photocatalysis, and various MOFs have been discussed, which performed outstanding photocatalytic activity. MOFs illustrated unexpectedly high efficiency, large-scale productivity, and cost-effective nature. In recent years, variety of MOFs has been designed to enhance the effectiveness of water treatment reactions and production of clean and eco-friendly fuel. This chapter also reports future plans for the synthesis of MOFs with new techniques for utilization at industrial level.