Exploitation of MOF decomposition mechanisms to tailor MOF-derived carbon structure in mono- and multimetallic PCN-250

Metal-organic framework (MOF)-templated materials, such as MOF-derived carbons (MOFdCs), are attractive materials for applications such as electrocatalysis and energy storage. Unfortunately, the black-box nature of their synthesis remains a barrier to their implementation, as it is difficult to target specific structural features or properties in the final material. In this work, we use the well-established decomposition mechanism of the iron-MOF PCN-250 to design a two-step MOF calcination procedure that produces a MOFdC exhibiting both high porosity and monophase iron(II,III) oxide. We further apply this procedure to bimetallic PCN-250 to form mixed-metal oxides with an iron(II,III) oxide-type structure. While the procedure successfully produced the target structure for cobalt- and manganese-doped PCN-250, it was unsuccessful for the nickel-doped PCN-250 due to the increased corrosion-resistance of the iron-nickel alloy intermediate.