Synergistic cobalt–copper metal–organic framework-derived oxide electrocatalyst for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Metal–organic framework (MOF) is considered to be one of the most promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts owing to its unique physical and chemical properties. However, the direct application of MOF to OER may have the problem of poor stability. In this work, a novel Co–Cu MOF-derived oxide [(Co–Cu)Ox] electrocatalyst was successfully prepared by ion exchange and air annealing. (Co–Cu)Ox exhibited an overpotential of 327 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and retained 96.8 % of its initial current density after 20 h of chronoamperometry. The fine oxygen-evolution performance of (Co–Cu)Ox was due to the fact that Cu2+ doping improved the catalyst conductivity, and the synergistic effect of Co2+/Co3+ and Cu+/Cu2+ redox pairs played an important role in the OER.