Rational Design of Metal–Organic Frameworks towards Efficient Electrocatalysis

Electrocatalysts play crucial roles in the electrochemical energy conversion systems. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), not their high-temperature pyrolysis derived materials, have attracted great attention as electrocatalysts in recent years, because of their large specific surface area, rich pore structure, and uniformly dispersed active sites. Although there are already some review articles focusing on MOFs as electrocatalysts, most of them are mainly based on the applications of MOFs to illustrate their capability and superiority in electrocatalysis. This Review highlights the effective strategies to obtain highly efficient MOFs electrocatalyst from the perspective of material design. Benefitting from the strategies of geometrically structural configuration, coordinatively unsaturated metal sites engineering, metal nodes/ligands optimization, or the electrical conductivity and stability enhancement in the recent progress, MOFs can be improved to exhibit potential for the practical applications in the renewable electrochemical energy conversion systems.