Selenium-Integrated MOFs and Their Derived Materials for Advanced Design, Functionality, and Applications

Selenium-integrated metal-organic frameworks and their derived materials (Se-MOFs) represent a transformative class of materials that synergistically combine the structural tunability of MOFs with Se's unique electronic, catalytic, and biological properties. By confining Se within MOF architectures, Se-MOFs effectively mitigate key challenges such as aggregation, polyselenide dissolution, and limited stability, while exhibiting enhanced redox activity, electronic conductivity, catalytic efficiency, and stimuli-responsive behavior. These features enable Se-MOFs to achieve high performance in alkali-metal-selenium batteries and supercapacitors while also enhancing electrocatalytic processes like oxygen reduction, oxygen evolution, and hydrogen evolution reactions. Beyond energy applications, Se-MOFs offer tunable porosity and surface functionality for controlled drug delivery, anticancer, and antioxidant effects, alongside promising environmental remediation capabilities. This review critically surveys the design strategies, synthetic methodologies, structure-property relationships, and application-specific advantages of Se-MOFs, addressing challenges in toxicity, scalability, and functional optimization. By consolidating mechanistic insights and recent advances, it provides a roadmap for rationally designing Se-MOFs and expanding their impact across energy, catalysis, biomedical, and environmental technologies.