Recent Progress in Designing Thermoelectric Metal–Organic Frameworks

Abstract

Thermoelectrics that enable direct heat–electricity conversion possess unique advantages for green and renewable energy revolution and have received rapidly growing attention in the past decade. Among various thermoelectric materials, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with intrinsic high porosity and tunable physical/chemical properties are emerging as a promising class of materials that have been demonstrated to exhibit many unique merits for thermoelectric applications. Their structural topologies and thermoelectric properties can be facilely regulated by precisely selecting and arranging metal centers and organic ligands. Besides, a large variety of guest molecules can be incorporated within their pores, giving rise to novel avenues of raising energy‐conversion efficiency. This review focuses on the recent advances in designing conductive MOFs and MOF‐based composites for thermoelectric applications. It first introduces the fundamental thermoelectric parameters and the underlying regulation mechanisms specifically effective for MOFs, then summarizes the related studies conducted in recent years, where the structural design strategies of tuning thermoelectric properties are demonstrated and discussed. In the final part, conclusions and perspectives with the envision of an outlook for this promising area are presented.

Heterometallic Benzenehexathiolato Coordination Nanosheets: Periodic Structure Improves Crystallinity and Electrical Conductivity

“…Although the present study is not focussed on optimisation of thermoelectric properties, which would require the tuning of carrier concentrations, it is useful to evaluate power factor values, S 2 σ. These are on the order of 2–5 µW m −1 K −2 (Figure S17, Supporting Information) similar to those of other MOFs [ 21 ] . Notably, the seven‐fold increase in the electrical conductivity of the heterometallic films was still outweighed by the higher Seebeck coefficient of the pure Ni 3 BHT resulting in a weak dependence of power factor on metal composition.…”

Recent Advances in the Nanomaterials, Design, Fabrication Approaches of Thermoelectric Nanogenerators for Various Applications

“…to as Cu 3 (HTTP) 2 was studied by Gonzalez-Juarez et al [125] The electrodeposited Cu 3 (HTTP) 2 exhibited a low power factor of 0.003 µW m −1 K (see the review by Fan et al [126] ), owing to poor electrical conductivity. However, improvements have been made to MOF-based TE materials, such as by compositing with CNTs.…”

Advances in Thermoelectric Composites Consisting of Conductive Polymers and Fillers with Different Architectures

“…Although most MOFs are insulators, their electronic structure can be tuned so as to promote electron flow. The ZT values of current MOF-based TE materials are not satisfactory, but the unique structure of MOF gives it enormous possibilities for optimization, especially for n-type materials [ 72 , 120 , 121 ].…”