Research progress of metal-organic frameworks-based materials for CO2 capture and CO2-to-alcohols conversion

The global climate change caused by the continuous increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has seriously threatened the survival of human beings, so it is imperative to control its emission reduction and achieve its utilization. The adsorption of CO2 and conversion into high-value-added chemicals can not only reduce the exhaust emission of greenhouse gas, but also help to solve the problems of excessive dependence on fossil fuels and the storage of renewable energy. As a promising carbon recycling technology, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has attracted wide attention in the past decades. Various functional materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), metal oxides, molecular sieves and porous carbon materials have sprung up for CO2 capture and conversion. MOFs have become a more promising candidate due to their highly tunable pore structure, easy surface functionalization and abundant active sites. This paper reviews most studies published in the last five years on MOFs used for capturing CO2 and CO2-to-alcohols conversion. The main topics include 1) The influencing factors of MOFs-based materials for CO2 capture and CO2-to-alcohols; 2) strategies to improve CO2 adsorption performance and the role of high throughput computational screening (HTCS) on the development and screening of MOFs adsorbent; 3) MOFs-based materials used for CO2-to-alcohols conversion in photo-, electro-, thermal-catalytic and their hybrid catalytic systems, as well as the corresponding mechanistic studies. The purpose of this review is to offer a technical and theoretical direction for the creation and industrial implementation of high-performance MOFs-based materials in the field of CO2 adsorption and conversion, highlight the associated challenges and opportunities.