A synergy establishment by metal-organic framework and carbon quantum dots to enhance electrochemical water oxidation

Abstract Available online Integrating transition metal centered MOFs with conductive materials is a feasible route to enhance electron transfer efficiency of materials. Herein, a composite porous structure CQDs10@NiFe-MOF-A was fabricated via introducing carbon quantum dots (CQDs) into porous NiFe-MOF. The CQDs would make partial loss of lattice in MOF during its growth, leading to the composite building block with the coexistance of crystalline region and amorphous region. The calcining treatment would produce an ultrathin protective layer as well as some lattice collapse. The synergy effect between NiFe ions effectively regulated electronic structure of metal active sites, and successful grafting of CQDs to NiFe-MOF significantly improved electrical conductivity. As expected, the catalyst exhibited outstanding OER performances with high mass activity of 91.6 A/g at overpotential of 300 mV and robust durability of 10,000 cycles in 1 mol/L KOH, which outperformed that of noble catalyst IrO2 of 25.2 A/g. The strategy paves a feasible and effective avenue for the non-noble metal catalysts.