Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials characterized by high specific surface areas, tunable pore structures, and abundant active sites, exhibit significant potential for application across multiple domains. However, conventional particulate MOFs and traditional thin-film preparation techniques often encounter challenges such as agglomeration, poor substrate adhesion, and performance degradation, which hinder their practical implementation. The approach of utilizing ALD of oxide nanomembranes to facilitate MOF film growth capitalizes on the inherent advantages of ALD, including its ability to produce dense, uniform, and conformal coatings. By depositing metal oxide (primarily ZnO) nanomembranes, this method promotes the growth of MOF films with enhanced substrate adhesion and enables the precise fabrication of high-quality, high-loading MOF films. This review provides a detailed explanation of the ALD-assisted MOF film growth methodology and its underlying principles, elucidates the specific mechanisms by which oxide nanomembranes enhance MOF film fabrication, and summarizes strategies for optimizing film structure and performance through adjustments to ALD parameters, oxide nanomembrane types, and deposition techniques. Additionally, the applications of MOF-based composites synthesized using this method in areas such as gas and biosensing, energy conversion, and environmental remediation are comprehensively reviewed. The challenges and future prospects of this technology, including large-scale fabrication, mechanistic insights, and multifunctional integration, are also discussed.
Wang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.