Nanostructural engineering of metal-organic frameworks: Construction strategies and catalytic applications

Famous as emerging inorganic-organic hybrid materials, metal -organic frameworks (MOFs) and MOF-based composites have been displaying bright prospects in catalysis fields. It is desirable to develop highly efficient MOF-based catalysts with excellent activ-ity, selectivity, and stability. The nanostructure of MOFs can bring dramatic effects on their inherent physical/chemical properties and the interaction with reaction substrates/intermediates. There-fore, it is applicable to promote the performance of MOF-based cat-alysts via nanostructure engineering. In this review, we focus on four classes of nanostructures, i.e., ultrathin nanostructure, hierarchically porous nanostructure, defective nanostructure, and MOF-shelled nanostructure (composite with MOF shell). Strategies for nanostruc-ture engineering of MOF-based catalysts are summarized, their ap-plications in thermo-catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis are overviewed, and the effects of nanostructure engineering on catalytic performance are discussed. We hope this review will be instructive for researchers in the rational and controllable construc-tion of MOF nanostructures for catalytic performance promotions.