Recent advances and perspectives of metal/covalent-organic frameworks in metal-air batteries

Metal-air batteries (MABs) have attracted considerable attention as a novel energy technology that can alleviate the severe energy crisis and environmental pollution. Two primary processes, including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occur on the air cathode and dominate the battery performance during battery charging and discharging. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs) emerge as promising cathode catalysts due to their structure and composition superiority. The unique characteristics of MOFs and COFs contribute to improved performance. This review mainly summarizes the recent applications of MOFs and COFs in a series of MABs, mainly including lithium- and zinc-air batteries. Additionally, some critical issues are emphasized regarding MOFs and COFs used in other MABs limited progress, their fabrication and alternatives to potential problems. (C) 2021 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press.