Recent advances of 2D conductive metal-organic frameworks in thermoelectrics

Conductive metal-organic frameworks (c-MOFs) are promising thermoelectric (TE) materials owing to their low thermal conductivity and tunable electronic properties. Theoretical results have shown that two-dimensional semiconductors have natural advantages in the TE field. Big progress has been achieved in the past decades both theoretically and experimentally. Two-dimensional metal-organic frameworks (2D c-MOFs) have shown desirable features for TE applications such as high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity. Enhanced ZT values have also been observed in c-MOF composites. These promising results might open new avenues for developing 2D c-MOF-based high-performance TE materials. This review summarizes state-of-the-art works on strategies of 2D c-MOF-based TE materials. Key TE parameters are discussed, and intrinsic TE properties of 2D c-MOFs are analyzed. Strategies to improve the electrical conductivity of 2D c-MOFs are explored, followed by an overview of relevant chemical structure-electrical property relations. At last, few representative samples of 2D c-MOF-based materials with high TE performance are highlighted.