Tackling orientation of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs): The quest to enhance MOF performance

•A comprehensive Review of the methods for preparing oriented MOFs.•Control of MOF orientation helps to maximize their performance.•Secondary growth and evolutionary selection can lead to oriented MOFs.•Dynamic alignment of free-standing MOFs can be achieved using external fields.•The use of free-standing MOFs is a new approach to creating aligned MOF assemblies.•The advantages of oriented MOFs over their randomly oriented counterparts are reported.