Role of MIL-53(Fe)/hydrated-dehydrated MOF catalyst for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium and photocatalysis

Ravi Nivetha; Pratap Kollu; Krishna Chandar; Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu; Soon Kwan Jeong; Andrews Nirmala Grace

doi:10.1039/c8ra08208a

Role of MIL-53(Fe)/hydrated-dehydrated MOF catalyst for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium and photocatalysis

RSC Adv. 2019 Jan 23;9(6):3215-3223. doi: 10.1039/c8ra08208a. eCollection 2019 Jan 22.

Authors

Ravi Nivetha¹, Pratap Kollu^{2

3}, Krishna Chandar⁴, Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu⁵, Soon Kwan Jeong⁶, Andrews Nirmala Grace¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Nanotechnology Research, VIT University Vellore India-632014 anirmalagrace@vit.ac.in anirmalagladys@gmail.com.
² Thin Film Magnetism Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge Cambridge CB3 0HE UK.
³ School of Physics, University of Hyderabad Gachibowli Hyderabad 500046 India.
⁴ Department of Physics, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University Vellore Tamil Nadu 632014 India.
⁵ Photocatalyst and Coatings Group, SPECIFIC, College of Engineering, Swansea University (Bay Campus) Fabianway Swansea SA18EN UK.
⁶ Climate Change Technology Research Division, Korea Institute of Energy Research Yuseong-gu Daejeon 305-343 South Korea.

Abstract

The role of breathing behavior in hydrated and dehydrated forms of MIL-53(Fe) is investigated here. The material can be used as an efficient electrocatalyst and photocatalyst for a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an alkaline medium and the same was further tested for the degradation of organic pollutants. The as-synthesized MIL-53(Fe)/hydrated and dehydrated forms were characterized by different analytical techniques to study their structure, morphology, surface analysis, thermal, physical and chemical properties. The breathing behavior of the hydrated and dehydrated forms of MIL-53(Fe) was studied through BET surface analysis. Our results show a low onset potential (-0.155 V and -0.175 V), Tafel slope (71.6 mV per decade, 88.7 mV per decade) and a large exchange current density (1.6 × 10^-4 mA cm^-2 and 2.5 × 10^-4 mA cm^-2). Hydrated and dehydrated MIL-53(Fe) degraded an RhB dye solution within 30 minutes thus proving their efficiency as efficient photocatalysts.