Rational design of multifunctional framework materials for sustainable photocatalysis

Photocatalysis harnesses photon energy to drive chemical reactions under mild conditions that would otherwise be thermodynamically uphill. Nature provides a blueprint for designing photocatalytic systems, as seen in photosynthesis, by assembling light-harvesting antenna complexes, electron transport chains, and catalytic enzymes to perform highly complex light-driven chemical syntheses. While methods leveraging the synergy between photosensitizers and catalytic complexes have been widely explored in photocatalysis, the hierarchical assembly of these components in material systems has been less studied. The emergence of framework materials, including metal-organic frameworks and covalent organic frameworks provides new opportunities for designing advanced photocatalysts based on these molecular material platforms. This minireview focuses on the design of framework materials for sustainable photocatalysis. We will discuss the design of framework materials for artificial photosynthesis and several important organic transformations and highlight the advantages of these catalytic framework materials over their homogeneous counterparts. Framework material-based photocatalysts are readily recovered from reactions and reused in multiple reaction runs, further contributing to the development of sustainable photocatalytic processes.