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Defect engineering of MOF toward enhanced electrocatalytic water oxidation

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Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting for the hydrogen production is now widely considered as a prominent technology to alleviate the energy crisis, due to its green, high efficiency, and low energy consumption. However, the slow kinetic rate of anodic oxygen evolution (OER) has hindered its further development. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop low cost and non-precious catalysts. Metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) are widely considered appropriate candidates for serving as OER catalysts because of their diverse composition, abundant pores, high specific surface area, and well-defined metal centers. However, MOFs usually suffer from the disadvantages of low electrical conductivity and slow mass transfer. To overcome these shortcomings, we herein propose a facile defect engineering strategy to obtain a class of advanced MOF-based OER electrocatalysts, where the NiFe-MIL-D@NF with abundant surface defects is demonstrated to be highly active toward OER, delivering a current density of 100 mA·cm−2 with the overpotential of merely 394 mV, along with outstanding electrochemical stability. This work reports a facile defect engineering strategy towards the modification of MOF-based electrocatalysts, which will guide the further development of more advanced OER electrocatalysts.

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The results/data/figures in this manuscript have not been published elsewhere, nor are they under consideration by another publisher. The corresponding author declares that all the data and materials are available.

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Funding

This work is supported by the start-up funding to H. Xu by Changzhou University (ZMF22020055), Advanced Catalysis and Green Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center, Changzhou University for financial support, Changzhou University College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (QZX23020158, QZX23020211). We also thanked the Analysis and Testing Center of Changzhou University for the assistance in characterizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Catalytic Materials and Technology, Advanced Catalysis and Green Manufacturing Collaborative Innovation Center, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, Jiangsu Province, China

    Kun Wang, Jian Kang, Lei Jin, Lida Yang, Yang Liu, Yahan Li, Guanyu Chen & Hui Xu

Authors
  1. Kun Wang
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  2. Jian Kang
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  3. Lei Jin
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  5. Yang Liu
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  7. Guanyu Chen
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  8. Hui Xu
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Contributions

Kun Wang: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, and writing. Jian Kang: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, and investigation. Lei Jin, Lida Yang, and Yang Liu: resources, data curation, and investigation. Yahan Li and Guanyu Chen: data curation and formal analysis. Hui Xu: writing, review, editing, and project administration.

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Correspondence to Hui Xu.

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Wang, K., Kang, J., Jin, L. et al. Defect engineering of MOF toward enhanced electrocatalytic water oxidation. Ionics 29, 5397–5403 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-05213-6

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