Engineering coordination polymers for photocatalysis

Photocatalysis has been distinguished itself as one of the most promising technologies from the wide variety of renewable energy projects underway, as it represents a promising approach to realize solar energy conversion. Under light irradiation, semiconductors (TiO2, Ag3PO4, WO3, CdS, and ZnS etc.) have demonstrated great potential in photolysis of water to yield hydrogen fuel, decomposition or oxidization of hazardous substances, photoelectrochemical conversion, as well as artificial photosynthesis. However, the disadvantages of easy agglomeration, and low solar energy conversion efficiency of these inorganic catalysts limit their large scale applications. Developing new photocatalysts has been attracting great attention in the related research communities. Owing to their structural diversity and controllable synthetic procedures, coordination polymers (CPs) provide a newly emerging platform to organize light-harvesting antennae and catalytic centers to achieve solar energy conversion. Besides, controllable integration of CPs with functional materials is leading to the creation of new multifunctional composites/hybrids, which exhibit superior photocatalytic performances to those of the individual components due to the collective behavior of the functional units. In this article, the latest advances of CPs based materials in the application of photocatalysis are critically reviewed, and the main approaches for efficient light harvesting and active site engineering in CPs-based photocatalysts are discussed. The main advantages of CPs as photocatalysts and the challenges faced for further improving catalytic performance are also highlighted.