Perspectives on titanium-based metal-organic frameworks

Abstract

Chemistry of titanium metal-organic frameworks (Ti-MOFs) encompasses the linking of various titanium-oxo clusters formed mainly by hydrolysis of titanium precursors and organic linkers. Owing to the high reactivity of such titanium precursors, the crystallites of Ti-MOFs are hardly obtained without applying tricky synthetic approaches. For the past decade, scientists have exhaustedly pursued many methodologies to overcome the synthetic challenges of Ti-MOFs. Achievements are indeed observed. However, challenges remain, which not only hinder the versatility of Ti-MOF chemistry but also limit their applications in photocatalysis. This perspective seeks to concisely summarize the Ti-MOF chemistry and discuss viewpoints of the author on how to promote the diversity of Ti-MOFs. The author hopes that future perspectives of this work will help direct the research in this field.