MOF-derived nanomaterials: Transformative innovations for renewable energy and environmental sustainability

Abstract

Metal-organic framework-derived nanomaterials (MOF-NMs) have revolutionized material science, offering unprecedented tunability in composition, porosity, and functionality. As versatile precursors, MOFs enable the synthesis of high-performance MOF-NMs, including metal oxides, metal nitrides, layered double hydroxides (LDHs), and carbon-based materials. By leveraging thermal treatments such as pyrolysis and calcination, along with chemical modifications of nitridation, phosphorylation, and sulfidation, these materials exhibit enhanced surface area, porosity, and catalytic activity. While extensive reviews have explored the synthesis and applications of MOF-NMs, a critical gap remains in systematically addressing the challenges that limit their large-scale deployment. This review highlights key synthesis routes of MOF-NM and the impact of critical parameters on their physicochemical properties. Despite their broad potential in catalytic applications such as HER, ORR, OER, and CO₂RR, the practical deployment of MOF-NM remains limited by issues of structural instability, poor scalability, and high production costs. This review discusses recent advancements aimed at addressing these challenges through innovative precursor design, material hybridization, and process optimization. By integrating insights into the transformative potential and challenges of MOF-NMs, this review serves as a roadmap for advancing these materials from laboratory research to real-world applications in sustainable energy and environmental technologies.