Applied Design Strategies for MOFs in CO ₂ Capture: Balancing Stability, Selectivity, and Scalability

ABSTRACT Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have become promising materials for capturing carbon dioxide from industrial sources and the atmosphere due to their adjustable porosity, high surface areas, and customizable chemical properties. However, turning lab results into real‐world CO 2 capture systems requires overcoming three main challenges: maintaining stability under practical conditions, achieving gas selectivity in complex mixtures, and scaling up production and integration. This review covers recent advances in MOF design strategies, focusing on how structural changes such as defect engineering, post‐synthetic functionalization, amine grafting, and optimizing framework structure affect stability, selectivity, and scalability. We compare the performance of leading MOF types (including ZIFs, MIL‐series, HKUST‐1, UiO‐66, CALF‐20, and amine‐functionalized frameworks), highlight ongoing issues such as moisture stability and regeneration energy, and explore future directions, including machine learning for discovery, hierarchical structures for process integration, and cost‐effective optimization. This review uniquely combines performance benchmarking with trade‐off analysis, providing practical insights to advance MOF‐based CO 2 capture toward commercial use.