Progress in polyoxometalate catalysis

Polyoxometalates (POMs) is a kind of metal-oxygen clusters with well-defined structures, controllable composition, and excellent properties including acidity, redox properties, etc. In recent years, POMs have shown potential application in the field of catalysis, materials, energy conversion and pharmaceuticals and become a hot interdisciplinary research area. This review focuses on the recent progress in the structure design of POMs and their catalytic properties, mainly including POM structure chemistry, acid-base catalysis, redox catalysis, photocatalysis, the catalytic conversion of CO2 and toxic molecules. In addition, the future development of POMs-based catalysis is prospected.