With many apparent advantages including high surface area, tunable pore sizes and topologies, and diverse periodic organic–inorganic ingredients, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been identified as versatile precursors or sacrificial templates for preparing functional materials as advanced electrodes or high-efficiency catalysts for electrochemical energy storage and conversion (EESC). In this Mini Review, we first briefly summarize the material design strategies to show the rich possibilities of the chemical compositions and physical structures of MOFs derivatives. We next highlight the latest advances focusing on the composition/structure/performance relationship and discuss their practical applications in various EESC systems, such as supercapacitors, rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and carbon dioxide/nitrogen reduction reactions. Finally, we provide some of our own insights into the major challenges and prospective solutions of MOF-derived functional materials for EESC, hoping to shed some light on the future development of this highly exciting field.

Hard carbon has been regarded as the most promising anode material for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs) due to its low cost, high reversible capacity, and low working potential. However, the uncertain sodium storage mechanism hinders the rational design and synthesis of high‐performance hard carbon anode materials for practical SIBs. During the past decades, tremendous efforts have been put to stimulate the development of hard carbon materials. In this review, we discuss the recent progress of the study on the sodium storage mechanism of hard carbon anodes, and the effective strategies to improve their sodium storage performance have been summarized. It is anticipated that hard carbon anodes with high electrochemical properties will be inspired and fabricated for large‐scale energy storage applications.