Metal–Organic Framework (MOF) and Porous Coordination Polymer (PCP)-Based Photocatalysts

Abstract

Recently, there has been intense scientific interest in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) also called porous coordination polymers (PCPs) owing to their designability in terms of the combination of their organic bridging ligands and metal nodes. The applications of MOFs that began with gas sorption materials have been rapidly extended to include sensing, drug delivery, and catalysis. We review herein the recent progress in designing MOFs for photocatalytic applications. The rational design of MOFs provides the development of visible-light-responsive photocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction, and bifunctional catalysts for a UV-light-promoted unique one-pot reaction. In the former system, the photocatalytic reaction proceeds through light absorption by the organic bridging ligand and the following electron transfer to the catalytically active metal-oxo cluster. The latter system is based on the integration of the photocatalytic ability of the metal-oxo cluster and the basicity of the organic bridging ligand in a single MOF material, which allows for the progression of one-pot sequential photocatalytic oxidation and Knoevenagel condensation reaction.