Research progress of MOFs-derived materials as the electrode for lithium–ion batteries — a short review

Owing to their high surface area, excellent electrolyte permeability and ample diffusion pathways for charge transport, porous and hollow-structured electrochemically active materials attract more attention as the electrodes. In general, the process of template preparation method is used to achieve hollow structured materials over the last few decades. However, the complicated preparation process including removal of template and surface modification often results in poor uniformity, low reproducibility, and high cost of porous structure. Moreover, it incorporates functional chemicals with specific homogeneity and dispersity into the hollow porous intercrystalline structure. These problems hinder the development and application in energy storage and conversion devices of the diversified porous and hollow-structured materials. The metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), consisting of organic linkers and coordinated inorganic clusters, appear as an excellent collection of porous crystal material series with high surface areas, high porosity, and tunable structures. However, their low conductivity and electrolyte instability limit the further use of MOFs in the field of LIBs. Recently, how electrode materials for Lithium–ion batteries (LIBs) are designed and prepare using MOFs has attracted more attention. The composite materials derived from MOFs including nanostructured porous carbons and metal oxide uaing self-sacrificial template synthetic route not only solves the problem of low conductivity but also maintains the high surface area and porous structure of MOFs, providing abundant active sites for insertion/deinsertion or adsorption/desorption; Furthermore, composite materials derived from MOFs increase the complexity of nanostructures in terms of structural units and chemical components. In particular, large pore volume and open pore structure are critical to loading guest species, accommodating mechanical strains and facilitating mass transport. In this paper, we briefly examined the production of MOF-derived materials for applications in LIBs. The optimization and modification of an MOFs morphology were implemented according to the electrode material requirement for LIBs. Moreover, the preparation of MOFs-derived electrode materials with porous, hollow, or complicated construction and their effects on electrochemical performance were described. Finally, the challenge and trend in production of electrode materials derived from MOFs were analyzed.