Recent advances in metal organic frame photocatalysts for environment and energy applications

•Four popular types of MOFs and other novel MOFs are summarized.•The recent development in preparation and photocatalysis of MOFs are summarized.•The common photocatalytic mechanism is summarized.•The applications of MOFs in both environment and energy are reviewed. Metal organic frameworks are very popular in fields of environment and energy over the past two decades due to their unique structural advantages and chemical properties. What meets people's expectations is that metal organic frameworks show very good effects in photocatalysis, showing great potential in the degradation of organic pollutants, hydrogen production, CO2 reduction and other aspects, providing a very promising prospect for subsequent development. This review briefly summarizes the latest progress of several popular metal organic frames (Fe-based, Ti-based, Zr-based, and Zn-based) and some novel metal organic frameworks as photocatalysts in environment and energy, summarizes the photocatalytic reaction mechanism, and puts forward a reasonable prospect for the future development of metal organic frameworks photocatalysis. This review may provide new insights for fabricating high-performance metal organic frameworks photocatalysts. [Display omitted]