Design Strategies toward Advanced MOF-Derived Electrocatalysts for Energy-Conversion Reactions

The key challenge to developing renewable and clean energy technologies lies in the rational design and synthesis of efficient and earth-abundant catalysts for a wide variety of electrochemical reactions. This review presents materials design strategies for constructing improved electrocatalysts based on MOF precursors/templates, with special emphasis on component manipulation, morphology control, and structure engineering. Guided by these strategies, recently developed MOF-derived materials have exhibited remarkable activity, selectivity, and stability for various energy-conversion processes, manifesting great potential for replacing precious-metal-based catalysts in next-generation energy devices. Existing challenges and opportunities regarding MOF-derived electrocatalysts are also discussed. It is anticipated that by extending current materials design strategies to a wider range of MOF precursors for various energy-related electrocatalytic reactions, significant advances toward achieving highly efficient electrocatalysts can be made.