Abstract:
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high porosity have received much attention as
promising materials for many applications owing to their unique properties. However, to date,
most of the reported MOFs have microporous structures, which slow down diffusion/mass
transfer and limit the accessibility of bulky molecules to its internal surface. Thus, it is crucial to
develop an efficient way to create larger pores (mesoporous and/or macroporous) into
microporous MOFs to form hierarchical porous metal-organic frameworks (HP-MOFs), which
facilitate the diffusion and mass transfer of guest molecules. HP-MOFs are excellent and
promising candidates for environmental applications under the background of environmental
contaminations. In this review paper, we are primarily focusing on the latest progress in the
preparation of HP-MOFs by employing template-assisted and template-free synthetic approaches
for environmental cleaning applications. Particularly, the adsorptive purification of the most
common toxic substances, including gases, dyes, heavy metal ions, and antibiotics from the
environment using HP-MOFs as adsorbents is briefly discussed. The overall results clearly
showed that the superiority of HP-MOFs compared with conventional microporous MOFs.
Finally, we summarize the remaining challenges and provide personal perspectives on possible
future development of HP-MOFs.
