An Ongoing Futuristic Career of Metal–Organic Frameworks and Ionic Liquids, A Magical Gateway to Capture CO2; A Critical Review

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are the “knight in shining armor” that can save humanity from burnout in the longer term, minimizing damage from CO2 emissions by keeping them out of the atmosphere. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have received a promising career for CO2 capture due to their high porosity, surface area, excellent metal-to-ligand interaction, and good affinity to capture CO2 molecules. On the other hand, Ionic liquids (ILs) as emerging solvents have reported a significant influence on CO2 solubility due to their wide range of tunability in the selection of a variety of cations and anions along with the advantage of nonvolatility, high thermal stability, and nonflammability. The current Review highlights the recent progress and ongoing careers of employing MOFs and ILs in carbon capture technologies before their commercialization on a large scale. A brief overview of CO2 capturing using MOFs and ILs is given under the influence of their possible functionalization to enhance their CO2 separation. Information on the possible integration of MOFs-ILs as a composite system or membrane-based gas separation is also presented in detail. The integration has a high potential to capture CO2 while minimizing the unit operation costs for a stable, efficient, and smooth industrial gas separation operation. Present work attempts to link the chemistry of MOF and IL and their successful hybridization (MOF-IL composite) to process the economics for CO2 capture.