Metal-organic framework (MOF)-based materials for photocatalytic antibacterial applications

For decades, thousands of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been synthesized and applied in numerous applications such as gas storage, gas separation, catalyst, drug delivery, etc., offering a large specific surface area, highly biocompatible, and highly active photocatalytic, MOFs have great potential for antibacterial application. However, there are limited reports on this application of MOFs. There are two possibilities in the antibacterial mechanism for MOFs: components releasing and photocatalyst. Here, we review recent reports on MOFs that are applied as photocatalysts in antibacterial. We focused on explaining the mechanism of the catalyst and pointing out the advantages of using MOFs as photocatalysts in antibacterial applications. We also emphasize the remaining challenges in this field and suggest strategies to keep developing the materials. The present review is expected to provide a significant contribution to the development of MOFs in the antibacterial field.