Ultrafine Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles embedded within nitrogen-doped carbon from Zr-MOFs-confined conversion for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Improvement of the low-cost transition metal electrocatalyst used in sluggish oxygen evolution reaction is a significant but challenging problem. In this study, ultrafine Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles embedded in a porous Ni-doped carbon matrix were produced by the pyrolysis of zirconium metal–organic–frameworks, in which 2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′-dicarboxylate operating as a ligand can coordinate with Ni²⁺ and Fe³⁺. This strategy allows formation of Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles with a uniform dimension of about 2 nm which can be ascribed to the spatial blocking effect of ZrO₂. This unique catalyst displays an efficient oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalytic activity with a low overpotential of 372 mV at 10 mA·cm^–2 and a small Tafel slope of 84.4 mV·dec^–1 in alkaline media. More importantly, it shows superior durability and structural stability after 43 h in a chronoamperometry test. Meanwhile, it shows excellent cycling stability during 4000 cyclic voltammetry cycles. This research offers a new insight into the construction of uniform nanoscale transition metals and their alloys as highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

metal–organic framework / pyrolysis / ultrafine / Fe-modulated Ni nanoparticles / oxygen evolution reaction

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0205103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21971045), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 18ZR1402900), and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (Grant No. B108).

Electronic Supplementary Materials

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2087-1 and is accessible for authorized users.

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