Revolutionary advancements in carbon dioxide valorization via metal-organic framework-based strategies

The conversion of CO₂ to value-added chemicals garners considerable attention because it produces renewable hydrocarbon fuels for use in the chemical industry and simultaneously reduces the atmospheric CO₂ concentration to mitigate the effects of global warming. Recently, researchers attempted to produce energy and chemicals via the electro-, thermo-, and photocatalytic conversion of CO₂ to realize sustainability and carbon neutrality. However, owing to the high thermodynamic stability of CO₂, these approaches are not yet ready for implementation in large-scale applications owing to their insufficient activities and selectivities and the stabilities toward resulting hydrocarbons. Therefore, more effective catalysts should be designed to transform CO₂ into various compounds. Porous crystalline frameworks, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), are promising for use in catalytic CO₂ conversion, owing to their strong CO₂ adsorption capacities, high surface areas, high porosity and chemical compositions, and adjustable active sites. Here, we present the structure-activity interactions that may direct the development of efficient catalysts and provide an overview of the recent studies regarding MOF-based materials for use in electro-, thermo-, and photocatalytic CO₂ conversion and integrated CO₂ technologies, including photoelectrocatalytic and electro- and photothermal CO₂ reduction.