Recent advances in Fe-based metal-organic frameworks: Structural features, synthetic strategies and applications

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are very exciting porous materials owing to their unique properties such as high surface areas, high pore volume, tunable functionalities and great thermal stabilities. The properties of MOFs can be diversely constructed by precise control of synthesis conditions. Amongst the thousands of MOFs that have been discovered to date, Fe-MOFs make up a percentage of these MOFs. Fe-MOFs are increasingly gaining great interest due to their unique properties and chemical versatility. However, comprehensive reviews on their emerging architectural features and designs as well as strategies for tailoring their applications. Therefore, in this review, we present a panoptic summary of the recent developments of Fe-MOFs, which includes synthetic strategies, activation methods, functionalization, overview of selected applications, current challenges impeding their commercialization, and suggested remedial actions. A holistic view of the interconnectedness of Fe-MOFs structural features, synthetic strategies and applications provides greater insights that highlight challenges hindering their wide-scale industrial applications. Moreover, newer approaches such as utilization of machine learning technique that are providing an opportunity for out-of-sight insights for material design and prediction of material properties are briefly highlighted. Remedial actions for challenges of transitioning Fe-based MOFs towards commercialization and industrial applications are also explored, and suggestions for these aspects are presented.