Fabrication of Ni–MOF-derived composite material for efficient electrocatalytic OER

Abstract

The poverty-stricken population cannot withstand the shocks of global warming and can hardly pay the soaring expenditure of fossil fuels whose reservoirs are already approaching the threshold limit. These adventures guided the researchers towards water oxidation as a source of energy. In this study, a metal-organic framework (MOF)-based material was fabricated and catalyzed the lethargic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The synthesized material is characterized with different analytical techniques to confirm structural, morphological and textural properties. Its huge surface area (87 m2/g) rendered it a promising material to carry the OER. It exhibited shallow onset potential that is, 1.40 V vs. RHE and displayed an exceptionally low overpotential of 1.42 V vs. RHE to reach the benchmark current density (10 mA/cm2) with remarkably small Tafel slope that is, 34 mV/dec. It surpassed the state of the art electrocatalyst for OER, that is, IrO2 and RuO2 in efficiency as well as in stability.

Keywords

• carbon dots
• ni–mof-derived composite
• catalytic sites
• electrochemical characterizations
• oxygen evolution reaction