Highly Porous MIL-100(Fe) for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) in Acidic and Basic Media

The present study reports the synthesis of a porous Fe-based MOF named MIL-100(Fe) by a modified hydrothermal method without the HF process. The synthesis gave a high surface area with the specific surface area calculated to be 2551 m² g^-1 and a pore volume of 1.407 cm³ g^-1 with an average pore size of 1.103 nm. The synthesized electrocatalyst having a high surface area is demonstrated as an excellent electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction investigated in both acidic and alkaline media. As desired, the electrochemical results showed low Tafel slopes (53.59 and 56.65 mV dec^-1), high exchange current densities (76.44 and 72.75 mA cm^-2), low overpotentials (148.29 and 150.57 mV), and long-term stability in both media, respectively. The high activity is ascribed to the large surface area of the synthesized Fe-based metal-organic framework with porous nature.