Amorphous dominated metal hydroxide-organic framework with compositional and structural heterogeneity for enhancing...

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Inorganic-organic hybrid materials are explored as anode catalysts for enhanced activity and stability.
• Developing efficient electrocatalysts is crucial for energy conversion technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize a novel amorphous inorganic-organic hybrid material for electrocatalytic applications.
• To evaluate the performance of the synthesized material in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR).

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of an amorphous-dominated transition metal hydroxide-organic framework (MHOF) on nickel foam (NF).
• Electrocatalytic performance testing for OER and UOR.
• Electrochemical characterization including operando Raman, Fourier transform infrared, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Main Results:

• The synthesized IML24-MHOF/NF exhibited ultralow overpotential for OER (271 mV) and high activity for UOR (1.29 V at 10 mA·cm⁻²).
• Urea electrolysis using IML24-MHOF/NF required only 1.31 V, significantly lower than traditional water splitting.
• Operando studies revealed self-adaptive reconstruction and electronic structure reconfiguration, enhancing catalytic activity.

Conclusions:

• The amorphous IML24-MHOF/NF catalyst demonstrates superior performance for anodic electro-oxidation reactions.
• Incorporation of pyridine-3,5-dicarboxylate modifies the electronic structure, improving reactant absorption.
• This work presents a new strategy for designing high-performance MHOF-based electrocatalysts.