Prussian blue, its analogues and their derived materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion

Abstract

Prussian blue (PB) and its analogues (PBAs) are simple coordination polymers with tunable chemical compositions and physical properties. These are electrochemically active materials in their pristine form and have also been utilized to derive various metallic nanostructures such as metal oxides, metal phosphides, metal sulfides, metal borides and carbon encapsulated metals/metal alloys, etc. for electrochemical applications. In recent years, the PB/PBAs and their derivatives have attracted significant interests as novel electrochemical materials for energy storage and conversion applications. Here, we briefly describe the structures of PB/PBAs and their derivatives followed by a comprehensive review on recent studies of their use in electrochemical energy storage (metal-ion batteries, supercapacitors) and conversion (metal-air batteries and water electrolyzers) devices. We not only discuss tuning of their internal chemistry but also compare device performance data among different studies and try to establish correlations between material properties with device performances. Last, we discuss critical challenges in this research area and propose three general areas for future research, followed by several specific research directions for different potential energy storage and conversion devices. We hope this review stimulate more studies to realize efficient energy storage and conversion applications of PA/PBAs and their derived nanostructures.