The escalating threat of environmental issues to both nature and humanity over the past two decades
underscores the urgency of addressing environmental pollutants. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)
have emerged as highly promising materials for tackling these challenges. Since their rise in popularity,
extensive research has been conducted on MOFs, spanning from design and synthesis to a wide array of
applications, such as environmental remediation, gas storage and separation, catalysis, sensors, biomedical and drug delivery systems, energy storage and conversion, and optoelectronic devices, etc. MOFs
possess a multitude of advantageous properties such as large specific surface area, tunable porosity,
diverse pore structures, multi-channel design, and molecular sieve capabilities, etc., making them
particularly attractive for environmental applications. MOF-based composites inherit the excellent
properties of MOFs and also exhibit unique physicochemical properties and structures. The tailoring of
central coordinated metal ions in MOFs is critical for their adaptability in environmental applications.
Although many reviews on monometallic, bimetallic, and polymetallic MOFs have been published, few
reviews focusing on MOF-based composites with monometallic, bimetallic, and multi-metallic centers in
the context of environmental pollutant treatment have been reported. This review addresses this gap by
providing an in-depth overview of the recent progress in MOF-based composites, emphasizing their
applications in hazardous gas sensing, electromagnetic wave absorption (EMWA), and pollutant
degradation in both aqueous and atmospheric environments and highlighting the importance of the
number and type of metal centers present. Additionally, the various categories of MOFs are summarized.
MOF-based composites demonstrate significant promise in addressing environmental challenges, and
this review provides a clear and valuable perspective on their potential in environmental applications.