Unraveling the Recent Advancement of Single-Atom Catalysts Derived from Metal-Organic Frameworks for Sustainable Electrocatalysis

Abstract

Electrocatalysis serves as a cornerstone for clean energy conversion, driving transformative advancements in future sustainable technologies. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are becoming exceptional materials for electrochemical catalytic applications. SACs promise improved stability, selectivity, and electrocatalytic activity in the area of sustainable energy conversion by utilizing their low-coordination environment, unique electrical structure, metal-support interaction, and quantum size effect. Typical instances of each technique are thoroughly covered in this Perspective, beginning with a comprehensive analysis of MOF synthetic pathways for achieving well-dispersed SACs, along with a thorough understanding of their corresponding synthesis mechanisms. Subsequently, a summary of characterization methods is provided to analyze the spatial distribution of isolated atoms, coordination environment, electronic structure, and stability mechanisms, as illustrated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic mechanisms of MOF-derived SACs are underscored alongside their pivotal electrocatalytic applications, including the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). Finally, the current challenges and prospects of this field are briefly discussed. © 2025 American Chemical Society.