Metal organic frameworks as electrocatalysts: Hydrogen evolution reactions and overall water splitting

The development of clean energy technologies to protect the environment is an important demand of the times. Electrocatalysis is emerging as a promising method for evolution of hydrogen and overall water splitting. Nowadays, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as electrocatalysts having uniformly distributed active sites and high electrical conductivity. This review summarizes the latest advances in heterogeneous catalysis by MOFs and their composite/derivatives for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and water splitting. Pristine MOFs with their recent development are summarized first followed by composites of MOFs with their enhanced electrocatalytic performances. Overall water splitting by using bifunctional electrocatalysts derived from MOFs with different synthetic approaches is provided and this review gives the metal-based categorisation of precursor MOFs. Different strategies to improve chemical stability, conductivity, and overall electrocatalytic properties have been discussed. In the last, perspectives on the synthesis of efficient MOF-based electrocatalyst materials are provided.