Metal-organic frameworks for electrocatalytic water-splitting: Beyond the pyrolysis

Increasing energy demands, global warming, and non-renewable energy sources obligate researchers to develop alternative resources of renewable clean energy. Recently, hydrogen is being considered as efficient clean energy source and electrochemical water splitting has been emerged for the production of hydrogen. It is essential to develop innovative, efficient, and cost effective materials for electrochemical water splitting. Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) based electrocatalysts have shown exceptional catalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as compared to conventional electrocatalysts, because of their widely distributed active sites, great surface area and sufficient pore sizes. Additionally, MOFs offers the precise topology, homogeneous metal ions distribution and sufficient stability. Herein, we highlight the most recent developments in pristine MOF-based electrocatalysts for the efficient HER and OER. Moreover, it demonstrates the relationship between architecture and electrocatalysis and offers new information on how to improve the intrinsic activity of pristine MOFs-based electrocatalysts by enhancing the number of active sites, ligand engineering, and integration of metals and the development of MOFs composites. The electrocatalytic activities of MOF-based catalysts for HER and OER are discussed along with their stability and selectivity. Overall, MOF-based electrocatalysts have great potential towards the advancement of competent and sustainable electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies. Finally, a critical discussion of complications and future perspectives of emerging MOFs as electrocatalysts is also highlighted.