Perspectives in Adsorptive and Catalytic Mitigations of NOx Using Metal-Organic Frameworks

Because of its high polluting effect, a growing research interest in NOx monitoring, removal, and control has been noticed in the last years. Motivated by the high degree of functional and structural tunability of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), researchers explored potential MOF-based adsorbents, sensors, and catalysts for NOx mitigation/control. However, this area of research is still in its infancy. In addition, the physical-chemical properties of NOx make this task extremely challenging as some materials suffer relatively weak thermal and/or chemical stability. Nevertheless, some recent encouraging studies have demonstrated superior stability properties that enable MOFs to be considered as alternative benchmark materials for the capture and conversion of NOx. This review offers an overview on the recent progress made in this field and provides some interesting routes on the uses of MOFs for selective NOx adsorption, release, and/or catalytic conversion (via selective catalytic reduction or photocatalysis).