In recent years, the discharge of dye-laden wastewater has become one of the major contributors to aquatic pollution. Owing to their complex chemical structures and persistent aromatic systems, many synthetic dyes are difficult to remove by conventional treatment methods, which often fail to fully degrade or capture these contaminants. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with their highly tunable porosity, abundant coordination-active sites, and advantageous chemical stability, have therefore attracted growing attention as promising next-generation adsorbents. This review begins by outlining the fundamental structural classes of MOFs, the mainstream synthetic strategies, and the key features that make them suitable for water purification. Particular emphasis is placed on recent studies that enhance adsorption performance through structural regulation, targeted functionalization, and the construction of MOF-based hybrid or composite materials. These approaches not only improve affinity toward dye molecules but also help address some of the inherent limitations of pristine MOFs. Finally, the review summarizes the remaining challenges and highlights the directions in which the field is likely to develop. Issues such as long-term stability, regeneration efficiency, and performance retention under realistic conditions still require careful attention. Nevertheless, continued advances in MOF-based composite materials point toward a broader and more reliable application of these systems in dye adsorption and wastewater treatment.
Jiaxin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.