(Invited) Coupling Metal-Organic Framework with Oxide Photocatalyst for Selective Photoredox Reactions
Authors: Ng Yun Hau 
Published: September 2023

Oxide photocatalyst is one of the major groups of photoactive semiconductors capable of facilitating useful photoredox reactions for a variety of energy and environmental-related applications. The intrinsic optical and electronic properties of oxide photocatalysts encounter a number of limitations. Often, the wide band gap and inferior photoexcited charge transportation within oxide semiconductors are highlighted. Wide band gap limits the light absorption while inadequate charge transport properties such as low charge mobility and short lifetime can only afford mild photoactivities. Strategies have been formulated to improve the performance of these semiconductors in order to bridge the gap for practical use. Among many existing strategies, coupling oxide photocatalysts with metal-organic framework (MOF) has gained attention in the community as one potential method to improve performance (e.g. higher light absorption, better product yield, prolonged stability and etc). Attaching photoactive MOFs onto or “doping” metallic element into oxide photocatalyst may extend the light absorption of the composite materials. Improved product yield is, more often, attributed to the adsorption capacity of MOFs towards reactant, which bring about the localised concentration of reactants adjacent to active sites of photocatalyst. Encapsulation of oxide photocatalyst by MOFs can suppress the undesirable side reactions (such as preventing Cu2O from direct contact with moisture) to prolong the stability of oxide photocatalyst.
In this presentation, in addition to the above mentioned advantages of MOFs, the role of MOFs in tuning the selectivity of product formation will also be examined and discussed. Figure 1 shows an example of improved selective oxidation of ethanol to form acetaldehyde using ZIF-8 encapsulated ZnO. Selectivity towards acetaldehyde has been improved from ~79% to ~92% with stable photocatalytic activity.1 In another work, Cu2O covered by Cu-MOF has afforded selective CO2 photoreduction to CH4.2 We believe there is charge interaction between the oxide photocatalyst and the adjacent MOF structure. Transfer of photoexcited electrons from the conduction band of Cu2O to the LUMO level of non-excited wide band gap Cu-MOF has been indicated using time-resolved photoluminescence. Because photocatalytic reactions are the results of electron transfer between photocatalyst and reactants, the presence of photocharge interplay between oxide photocatalyst and MOFs may provide new room for exploration as it has demonstrated significant influence in the selectivity of product formation.

Figure 1. Example of improved product selectivity by incorporating MOFs to oxide photocatalyst. The left figure indicates the improved formation of acetaldehyde from photocatalytic ethanol oxidation. The right figure shows the reasonable stability of the MOF-oxide photocatalyst under illumination.

Reference:

H. Wu, T. H. Tan, R. Liu, H. -Y. Hsu, Y. H. Ng, Selective Ethanol Oxidation to Acetaldehyde on Nanostructured Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8-wrapped ZnO Photothermocatalyst Thin Films,
Solar RRL

2021, 5, 2000423.

H. Wu, X. Y. Kong, X. Wen, S. –P. Chai, E. C. Lovell, J. Tang, Y. H. Ng, Metal-Organic Framework Decorated Cuprous Oxide Nanowires for Long-lived Charges Applied in Selective Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CH4.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.

2021, 60, 8455-8459.

Figure 1