The growing global energy demands and resulting environmental issues have evoked huge concerns in academia and industry to develop green energy sources to replace traditional fossil fuels. Supercapacitors, batteries, fuel cells and electrolyzers are the leading renewable energy conversion and storage technologies due to higher efficiency and zero emissions have the tendency to replace fossil fuels. However, the current performance status, particularly the durability of these technologies, does not meet the desired performance. Catalyst is the core part of these energy conversion and storage technologies, consisting of metallic nanoparticles or composite deposited on the support material. Therefore, the durability of the catalyst is crucial in the overall performance of these technologies and the role of catalyst support can’t be overlooked in the durability of catalyst. Most commonly used catalyst support materials are different kinds of carbon materials, i.e., commercial carbon black, carbon nanotubes etc. However, these carbon materials are usually vulnerable to the corrosive environment leading to poor stability of the catalyst. Therefore, enhancing corrosion resistance, improving conductivity, electrochemical surface area and mass transport properties of carbon materials are important for the enhanced durability of the catalyst.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging nanomaterials with diversified applications, including (not limited to) gas storage, sensing and catalysis. For example, MOFs-derived nanocarbon composite materials have promising properties i.e. high surface area, high graphitization, tunable porosity and metallic moieties which makes them ideal catalyst support materials. Moreover, MOFs-derived nanocarbon can also be used for different applications, including gas separation, sensing applications, etc.

This issue aims to present the recent developments in applications of MOFs and their derived nanocarbon materials towards different energy conversion and storage technologies, including batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells and electrolyzers etc. With broader applications prospects of MOFs derived carbon materials, this issue will cover a vast research area, including material science, material chemistry, energy engineering etc. Review papers, mini-reviews and research articles covering the MOFs and their derived carbon are welcomed to publish.