Leveraging coordination chemistry for next-generation catalytic adsorbents: Mechanisms, materials, and metrics for VOC control

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) pose significant environmental and health risks. Conventional adsorption-based removal suffers from limitations such as poor capacity and frequent regeneration. Catalytic adsorbents, which synergistically integrate adsorption with in situ catalytic degradation, offer a transformative solution by enabling self-regeneration and extending material lifespans. Consequently, precise control over metal-ligand interactions and local coordination environments emerges as the critical lever for optimizing the adsorption-catalysis synergy essential for sustainable VOC abatement. It is critically examined how critical functionalities (e.g., enhanced adsorption affinity, optimized active-site density, and efficient electron transfer for catalytic oxidation) are governed by tailored coordination environments, such as metal-centered coordination geometries, heteroatom donor motifs, metal–support interfacial bonds, and, in the case of MOFs, organic linker functionality. The discussion is structured around key material platforms, carbon-based materials, metal-organic frameworks, metal oxides, and hybrid composites, where coordination-driven tuning dictates performance. In this work, their efficacy is evaluated against VOCs commonly encountered in indoor environments such as formaldehyde and toluene as representative model compounds using a consistent benchmarking framework focused on adsorption capacity, catalytic conversion efficiency, regenerability, and long-term stability. By linking molecular-scale coordination motifs to macroscopic system performance, this review provides a unified design roadmap for developing durable, energy-efficient, and scalable catalytic adsorbents. Finally, we identify key challenges in scalability, resistance to deactivation, and techno-economic viability, offering targeted directions for future research aimed at translating coordination chemistry into practical, sustainable air purification technologies.