Current perspectives in utilizing zeolitic imidazolate frameworks to prepare efficient oxygen evolution catalysts

Electrocatalytic water splitting is a sustainable method to resolve the current energy and climate issues. Many research efforts focus on developing low-cost, efficient, and durable electrocatalysts for the half-reaction of water oxidation. Metal-organic framework-based materials are promising elec-trode materials due to their porous morphology and electronic conductivity. In particular, ZIF-based materials have demon-strated great performance, yet there is still much room to ameliorate the electronic and chemical properties. Recent re-ports showed that ZIF structure is prone to structural modifi-cations, where electrochemical reconstruction occurs to generate active species during OER. This opinion article high-lights the synthetic strategies to elevate the OER performance and durability of ZIF-based electrocatalysts and summarizes the mechanistic studies. Those studies provided insightful in-formation on structural transformation and the formation of real-time intermediates. Finally, future research perspectives are discussed on using ZIF-based materials to design high-performing OER catalysts at the level of industrial use.