Water depollution using metal-organic frameworks-catalyzed advanced oxidation processes: A review

Highlights: • MOFs and their hybrid materials enhance depollution performance. • MOFs as visible photocatalysts promote dyes degradation. • MOFs catalyze Fenton and sulfate radical-based oxidations for depollution. • Iron-based MOFs as sustainable heterogeneous materials efficiently degrade. organics. -- Abstract: This paper presents a review on the environmental applications of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are inorganic-organic hybrid highly porous crystalline materials, prepared from metal ion/clusters and multidentate organic ligands. The emphases are made on the enhancement of the performance of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) (photocatalysis, Fenton reaction methods, and sulfate radical (SO₄⁻)-mediated oxidations) using MOFs materials. MOFs act as adsorption and light absorbers, leading to superior performance of photocatalytic processes. More recent examples of photocatalytic degradation of dyes are presented. Additionally, it is commonly shown that Fe-based MOFs exhibited excellent catalytic performance on the Fenton-based and SO₄^{• −}-mediated oxidations of organic pollutants (e.g., dyes, phenol and pharmaceuticals). The significantly enhanced generation of reactive species such as OH and/or SO₄⁻ by both homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis was proposed as the possible mechanism for water depollution. Based on the existing literature, the challenge and future perspectives in MOF-based AOPs are addressed.