Recent Progress in Metal-Organic Frameworks and their Derivatives as Advanced Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Abstract

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) plays an important role in clean energy storage and conversion devices, such as metal-air batteries and fuel cells. However, the slow kinetic has impeded their large-scale applications. Hence, it is necessary to develop highly efficient electrocatalysts to accelerate the reaction rate of ORR. Owing to their ordered structure, ultrahigh specific surface area, abundant channel and functional adjustability, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives were explored to catalyze ORR. In this chapter, we present a timely review of pristine MOFs and MOF-derived porous carbon-based materials as advanced electrocatalysts for ORR. We start with the introduction of the fundamentals of electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), followed by surveying various forms of MOFs and MOFderived nanomaterials as advanced electrocatalysts towards ORR, including metal-free heteroatom-doped carbon-based materials, transition metal and nitrogen co-doped carbon (M-Nx-C), carbon-supported single-atom catalysts (SACs). Additionally, we briefly outline the challenges and prospects of this research filed.