Metal-organic framework and its composites for electrocatalytic energy conversion application

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are attractive electrocatalysts for electrochemical energy conversion owing to their modular nature that allows for great synthetic tunability leading to both fine chemical and structural control. With planned synthetic strategy, properties such as porosity, stability, particle morphology, and conductivity of MOFs can be tailored for specific electrocatalysis application. The combination of the mesoporous structure of MOFs and readily accessible redox sites may enable a higher active site utilization than typical heterogeneous catalysts. In particular, considering their highly accessible metal-ligand junctions, MOFs have been extensively tested for their interfacial electronic coupling interactions which determine the efficiency of important electrochemical reactions involved in the conversion of small molecules such as water/carbon dioxide into sustainable fuels and platform chemicals. However, the electrocatalytic activity of MOFs is limited to some extent by their low chemical stability and electrical conductivity. This can be addressed by integrating MOFs with conducting electrocatalysts or their derivatives which generally display better electrical conductivity, high surface area, and enhanced chemical stability. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the structure, synthesis strategies, composition, morphology, electrocatalytic performance, reaction mechanism, and application of MOFs or their derivatives in a wide range of electrocatalysis applications, such as CO2 reduction reaction (CRR), N2 reduction reaction (NRR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), etc. Further, this chapter will discuss various strategies to develop chemically stable and electrically conductive MOFs for electrochemical energy conversion.