Avoiding Pyrolysis and Calcination: Advances in the Benign Routes Leading to MOF-Derived Electrocatalysts

Taking cognizance of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 “affordable and clean energy”, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and derived materials have spurred research interest in electrocatalysis. New findings have made headway in water splitting (oxygen evolution reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction) and other electrocatalysis, including the oxygen reduction reaction and electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Thanks to their structural versatility and compositional modularity, MOFs offer bespoke design paradigms for electrocatalyst development. Albeit most advances in this area are predicated upon direct carbonization (pyrolysis) of MOFs/MOF composites, eschewing these energy-intensive and high-cost methods, this review summarizes all recent advances in MOF-based electrocatalysts exclusively prepared through indirect post-treatments.