Driving the Oxygen Evolution Reaction by Nonlinear Cooperativity in Bimetallic Coordination Catalysts

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Efficient catalysts are crucial for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in electrolysis, a key challenge in energy conversion.
• Metal-organic networks offer potential as electrocatalysts, inspired by single-atom catalysts and metallo-proteins.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the catalytic activity of novel heterobimetallic organic catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).
• To explore the impact of specific coordination environments of single iron (Fe) and cobalt (Co) atoms on catalytic performance.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of novel heterobimetallic metal-organic catalysts.
• Electrochemical evaluation of catalytic activity for OER.
• Systematic variation of Fe and Co coordination environments using a supramolecular approach.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a dramatic enhancement in catalytic activity for OER by nearly 2 orders of magnitude compared to metallo-porphyrins.
• Observed a highly nonlinear increase in catalytic activity based on the coordination spheres of Fe and Co.
• Achieved catalysis onset at approximately 300 mV overpotential with high turnover frequencies.

Conclusions:

• Novel heterobimetallic metal-organic catalysts exhibit superior performance for OER compared to traditional metal-organic catalysts.
• Precise control over single-atom coordination environments in metal-organic networks is critical for optimizing OER electrocatalysis.
• These findings advance the development of efficient electrocatalysts for energy conversion technologies.