Structural engineering in hierarchical nanoarchitectures of metal–organic frameworks and their derivatives

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted much attention owing to their tuneable structures, high surface areas, and good functionalization. Nanoreactors derived from various MOFs are now widely used in heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis. The nanoarchitectures of MOFs and their derivatives have a great impact on mass and energy transfer pathways, thus affecting the activity and selectivity of the catalysts. In this review, we intend to provide a universal survey of reported methods to synthesize MOF-based core–satellite, core–shell, yolk–shell and hollow–shell structures or their derivatives in recent years and present a continuous evolution among them. We hope that this review could provide some perspectives for exploring new facile methods to prepare different hierarchical nanoarchitectures of MOFs or their derivatives.