Metal–organic frameworks and their derivatives as electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is an appealing and promising approach for energy conversion and storage. As a key half-reaction of electricity-driven water splitting, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a sluggish process due to the transfer of four protons and four electrons. Therefore, development of low-cost and robust OER electrocatalysts is of great importance for improving the efficiency of water splitting. Based on the merits of high surface area, rich pore structure, diverse composition and well-defined metal centers, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives have been widely exploited as OER electrocatalysts. Herein, the current progress on MOFs and their derivatives for OER electrolysis is summarized, highlighting the design principle, synthetic methods and performance for MOF-based materials. In addition, the structure–performance relationships of MOFs and their derivatives toward the OER are discussed, providing valuable insights into rationally developing OER catalysts with high efficiency. The current scientific and technological challenges and future perspectives towards the purpose of sustainable industrial applications are addressed at the end.