This review provides an overview of porous carbon materials and their hydrogen storage properties with insight on strategic improvement by structural and chemical modifications and current trends of using machine learning and lifecycle assessment.

Pesticide contamination is a global issue, affecting nearly 44% of the global farming population, and disproportionately affecting farmers and agricultural workers in developing countries. Despite this, global pesticide usage is on the rise, with the growing demand of global food production with increasing population. Different types of porous materials, such as carbon and zeolites, have been explored for the remediation of pesticides from the environment. However, there are some limitations with these materials, especially due to lack of functional groups and relatively modest surface areas. In this regard, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) provide us with a better alternative to conventionally used porous materials due to their versatile and highly porous structure. Recently, a number of MOFs have been studied for the extraction of pesticides from the environment as well as for targeted and controlled release of agrochemicals. Different types of pesticides and conditions have been investigated, and MOFs have proved their potential in agricultural applications. In this review, the latest studies on delivery and extraction of pesticides using MOFs are systematically reviewed, along with some recent studies on greener ways of pest control through the slow release of chemical compounds from MOF composites. Finally, we present our insights into the key issues concerning the development and translational applications of using MOFs for targeted delivery and pesticide control.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global crisis with an increasing number of untreatable or exceedingly difficult-to-treat bacterial infections, due to their growing resistance to existing drugs. It is predicted that AMR will be the leading cause of death by 2050. In addition to ongoing efforts on preventive strategies and infection control, there is ongoing research towards the development of novel vaccines, antimicrobial agents, and optimised diagnostic practices to address AMR. However, developing new therapeutic agents and medicines can be a lengthy process. Therefore, there is a parallel ongoing worldwide effort to develop materials for optimised drug delivery to improve efficacy and minimise AMR. Examples of such materials include functionalisation of surfaces so that they can become self-disinfecting or non-fouling, and the development of nanoparticles with promising antimicrobial properties attributed to their ability to damage numerous essential components of pathogens. A relatively new class of materials, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), is also being investigated for their ability to act as carriers of antimicrobial agents, because of their ultrahigh porosity and modular structures, which can be engineered to control the delivery mechanism of loaded drugs. Biodegradable polymers have also been found to show promising applications as antimicrobial carriers; and, recently, several studies have been reported on delivery of antimicrobial drugs using composites of MOF and biodegradable polymers. This review article reflects on MOFs and polymer–MOF composites, as carriers and delivery agents of antimicrobial drugs, that have been studied recently, and provides an overview of the state of the art in this highly topical area of research.

Due to high surface area, loading capacity, and selectivity, Metal‐Organic Frameworks (MOFs) have shown much promise recently for potential applications in extraction and delivery of agrochemicals for environmental remediation and sustainable release, respectively. However, application of MOFs for pesticide delivery in wider agricultural context can be restricted by their granular form. Herein, an alternative approach is studied using biodegradable polymer‐MOF composites to address this limitation. The loading and release of a widely used pesticide, 2,4‐dichloropheoxycetic acid (2,4‐D), is studied using two MOFs, UiO‐66 and UiO‐66‐NH ₂ , and the 2,4‐D‐loaded MOFs are incorporated into biodegradable polycaprolactone composites for convenient handling and minimizing runoff. The MOFs are loaded by in‐situ, and post‐synthetic methods, and characterised thoroughly to ensure successful synthesis and loading of 2,4‐D. The pesticide release studies are performed on the MOFs and composites in distilled water, and analysed using UV‐Vis spectroscopy, demonstrating sustained‐release of 2,4‐D over 16 days. The loaded MOF samples show high loading capacity, with up to 45 wt% for the in‐situ loaded UiO‐66. Release kinetics show more sustained release of 2,4‐D from UiO‐66‐NH ₂ compared to UiO‐66, which can be due to supramolecular interactions between the NH ₂ group of UiO‐66‐NH ₂ and 2,4‐D. This is further supported by computational studies.

Contamination of water by oil-based pollutants is a major environmental problem because of its harmful impact on human life, marine life, and the environment. As a result, a wide range of materials are being investigated for the effective separation of oil from water. Among these materials, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their composites have emerged as excellent candidates due to their ultraporous structures with high surface areas that can be engineered to achieve high selectivity for one of the phases in an oil/water mixture for efficient water filtration. However, the often nanocrystalline/microcrystalline form of MOFs combined with challenges of processability and poor stability in water has largely limited their use in industrial and environmental applications. Hence, considerable efforts have recently been made to improve the performance and stability of MOFs by introducing hydrophobic functional groups into the organic linkers and fabricating polymer-MOF composites to increase their stability and recyclability. In addition, the use of biobased or biodegradable MOF composites can be particularly useful for applications in natural environments. This Review presents recent advances in the field of hydrophobic MOFs and MOF-based composites studied for the separation of oil from oil/water mixtures, with an account of future challenges in this area.