Electrochemical applications of metal−organic frameworks

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are materials constructed by linking multitopic organic ligands and metal ions or clusters by means of strong coordination bonds. These materials have attracted growing interest, due to their highly tunable composition, structure, and chemical functionalities, from which arise a great variety of remarkable topologies and properties. MOFs can be produced in different ways and theirmain characteristics are very high surface area, low density, reasonable thermal stability, and possibility of surface modification, due to the organic portion of the material. Such properties allow their use in wide range of applications, exploiting the ability to preconcentrate gases and other analytes in their cavities, as a result of the specific pore sizes and/or diverse functional groups of MOFs. This chapter describes and discusses the synthesis of MOFs and the applications of these materials in electrocatalytic processes, electrochemical sensors, photoelectrocatalytic processes, and degradation of organic pollutants in wastewaters.