Co-Cu Bimetallic Metal Organic Framework Catalyst Outperforms the Pt/C Benchmark for Oxygen Reduction

Mohamed Fathi Sanad; Alain R Puente Santiago; Sarah A Tolba; Md Ariful Ahsan; Olivia Fernandez-Delgado; Mina Shawky Adly; Elhussein M Hashem; Mohamed Mahrous Abodouh; M Samy El-Shall; Sreeprasad T Sreenivasan; Nageh K Allam; Luis Echegoyen

doi:10.1021/jacs.1c01096

Co-Cu Bimetallic Metal Organic Framework Catalyst Outperforms the Pt/C Benchmark for Oxygen Reduction

J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Mar 17;143(10):4064-4073. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c01096. Epub 2021 Mar 4.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79968, United States.
² Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79968, United States.
³ Energy Materials Laboratory, School of Sciences and Engineering, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo 11835, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia 23284-2006, United States.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Al-Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
⁶ FabLab, Centre for Emerging Learning Technologies (CELT), The British University in Egypt (BUE), Elshrouk City, Cairo Egypt.

PMID: 33661615
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c01096

Abstract

Platinum (Pt)-based-nanomaterials are currently the most successful catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in electrochemical energy conversion devices such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Nonetheless, Pt catalysts have serious drawbacks, including low abundance in nature, sluggish kinetics, and very high costs, which limit their practical applications. Herein, we report the first rationally designed nonprecious Co-Cu bimetallic metal-organic framework (MOF) using a low-temperature hydrothermal method that outperforms the electrocatalytic activity of Pt/C for ORR in alkaline environments. The MOF catalyst surpassed the ORR performance of Pt/C, exhibiting an onset potential of 1.06 V vs RHE, a half-wave potential of 0.95 V vs RHE, and a higher electrochemical stability (ΔE_1/2 = 30 mV) after 1000 ORR cycles in 0.1 M NaOH. Additionally, it outperformed Pt/C in terms of power density and cyclability in zinc-air batteries. This outstanding behavior was attributed to the unique electronic synergy of the Co-Cu bimetallic centers in the MOF network, which was revealed by XPS and PDOS.