Trade-offs between morphology and coordination environment: Presenting silver strategies in two-dimensional...

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) constitutes the major energy-consuming bottleneck in hydrogen production via water electrolysis. Although morphology engineering and coordination environment regulation are known to improve catalytic performance, often operating synergistically, a systematic elucidation of their respective advantages remains absent. Herein, we utilize Two-dimensional ZIF-L as a homologous precursor to rigorously compare the efficacy of morphological retention versus coordination environment reconstruction in enhancing the OER activity of CoSe₂-based catalysts. While the supported CoSe₂@ZIF-L-P composite maintained the original 2D layered framework to maximize specific surface area (yielding an overpotential of 336 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and a Tafel slope of 92.6 mV dec^-1), the CoSe₂@Co-N-C derivative-engineered via thermal framework collapse to reconstruct the local coordination environment-demonstrated superior intrinsic activity. Specifically, CoSe₂@Co-N-C-P achieved a lower overpotential of 291 mV and an optimized Tafel slope of 83.9. Our findings unequivocally demonstrate that for homologous 2D MOF-derived systems, tuning the coordination environment offers a more significant gain in OER performance than morphology preservation alone. This work offers strategic guidance for prioritizing coordination modulation in the development of advanced MOF-derived electrocatalysts.