Construction of superhydrophilic metal-organic frameworks with hierarchical microstructure for efficient overall water splitting

Zhao Yin; Jin Liang; ZiYi Zhang; Hang Luo; Jun Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.05.057

Construction of superhydrophilic metal-organic frameworks with hierarchical microstructure for efficient overall water splitting

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Oct:623:405-416. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.05.057. Epub 2022 May 13.

Authors

Zhao Yin¹, Jin Liang², ZiYi Zhang³, Hang Luo¹, Jun Zhou³

Affiliations

¹ Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Materials Surface & Interface Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, PR China; College of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, PR China.
² Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Materials Surface & Interface Science and Technology, Changsha 410004, PR China; College of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, PR China. Electronic address: ljcfstu@163.com.
³ College of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, PR China.

PMID: 35594597
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.05.057

Abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) display promising potential due to their exquisite structural advantages. Carboxylate-based MOFs, such as MIL-53 structures, attract a lot of attention among MOF families because of their remarkable stability in water and even alkaline condition. Hence, the delicate hierarchical microstructure is constructed by introducing MoO₄^2- into NH₂-MIL-53(NiFe) using a straightforward solvothermal strategy. The NiFeMo-MOF/NF electrode manifests a superior OER performance, producing an overpotential of 239 mV at 50 mA cm^-2 and a decent Tafel slope of 87.0 mV dec^-1. Furthermore, in a typical electrodeposition equipment, NiFeMo-MOF/NF is applied as the working electrode and the composite electrode named as (M) Ni-NiOOH/NF is generated by electrodeposition and electrooxidation process to assess HER performance, producing an overpotential of 119 mV at 50 mA cm^-2 and a decent Tafel slope of 58.3 mV dec^-1. The integrated electrolysis device delivers an extraordinarily low cell voltage of 1.50 V at 10 mA cm^-2 while applying NiFeMo-MOF/NF as the anode, (M)Ni-NiOOH/NF as the cathode for overall water splitting, exceeding the noble RuO₂/NF||Pt-C/NF (1.60 V@10 mA cm^-2). This study provides a promising design strategy for future electrolysis catalysts.

Keywords: Hierarchical microstructure; MoO(4)(2−); NH(2)-MIL-53(NiFe); Overall water splitting.