Metal-organic frameworks on 3D interconnected macroporous sponge foams for large-scale water decontamination: A mini review

Water pollution caused by global population growth, urban expansion and industrialization development is one of the urgent issues that need to be addressed in the 21st century. Up to now, it was challenging for metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to be used in the actual water treatment due to that the powder MOFs suffered from difficult reuse, poor water stability and easy corrosion. It is an effective strategy to immobilize MOFs powder onto porous sponge foam carriers for accomplishing large flux, facile recycling, easy processing water treatment setups. In this review article, the fabrication approaches and applications of different MOFs/sponge composites were highlighted, in which the fluorescence detection of pollutants, adsorption and separation of pollutants, catalytic reduction and oxidation of pollutants were included. Finally, the future challenges and opportunities of MOF/sponge for water treatment are proposed, aiming to provide in-depth guidance for the future design and manufacture of the immobilized MOFs onto sponge foams.