Photocatalytic Decontamination of Wastewater Containing Organic Dyes by Metal-Organic Frameworks and their Derivatives

Photoactive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have lately emerged as a class of crystalline porous materials, which pro-vides an advanced platform to develop catalysts for the photocatalytic decolorization of wastewater. Controllable integration of pure MOFs into other active materials creates fabrication protocols for new multifunctional hybrids with superior photo-catalytic properties for dye degradation into individual compo-nents, and the calcination of transition-metal MOF precursors affords a convenient and practical route for preparation of nanosized photocatalysts with novel structures and good purity. Although the application of pure MOFs for organic pol-lutant decomposition has been reviewed previously, there have been significant advances in diverse MOF-based compo-sites and their derivatives for dye degradation, which have rarely been reviewed. This review aims to fill this gap and discuss the various influencing factors, the reaction kinetics, and mechanisms of dye degradation, considering the period from 2014 to 2016. Finally, the challenges and outlooks for dye de-composition by MOF-based materials are suggested.