There is a general consensus to develop renewable energy storage and conversion technologies to replace fossil fuel energy for sustainable development. Currently, the development of high performance energy storage and conversion devices is an important step on the road to alternative energy technologies. Among the newly developed materials, porous carbons and related functional materials including metal/metal oxide nanoparticles and carbon–metal/metal oxide hybrids show potential for applications in such devices. Recently, the newly emerging open framework materials, including metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic frameworks (POFs), act as outstanding templates and/or precursors to fabricate porous carbons and related nanostructured functional materials based on their high surface areas, controllable structures and abundant metal/organic species in their scaffolds. Here, recent significant advances in the development of open frameworks for preparation of porous carbons and related nanostructured functional materials are reviewed with special emphases on the applications in the energy and environmental areas.
