Facile synthesis of Ru-incorporated NiFe‒MOF nanosheet heterostructures as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst

Abstract

Constructing specific noble metal/metal–organic framework (MOF) nano-heterostructures is an effective strategy for promoting water electrolysis, yet remains highly challenging due to complex synthesis methods, difficulties in structural characterization, and the demanding nature of performance optimization. In this work, a heterojunction electrocatalyst was developed through growing Ru nanoparticles on NiFe‒MOF nanosheets (NSs) supported by nickel foam (NF) using an easily accessible solvothermal method followed by an annealing strategy. Owing to the electronic interaction between Ru nanoparticles and NiFe‒MOF NSs, the optimized Ru@NiFe‒MOF/NF catalyst exhibits excellent bifunctional performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction (with an overpotential of 84 mV at 10 mA·cm⁻²) and the oxygen evolution reaction (with an overpotential of 240 mV at 10 mA·cm⁻²) in a 1.0 mol·L⁻¹ KOH solution, which is superior to that of commercial catalysts. This study highlights a promising strategy for designing and developing efficient electrocatalysts for overall water electrolysis.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Ru@NiFe–MOF/NF / catalytic performance / oxygen evolution reaction / hydrogen evolution reaction / nanosheet / heterostructure

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Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52173257 and 52372064), the Major Research Program of Jingdezhen Ceramic Industry (Grant No. 2023ZDGG001), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Grant Nos. 20232ACB204011 and 20224BAB204001), and the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of New Ceramic Materials Tsinghua University (Grant Nos. KF202309 and KF202414).

Data availability statement

Data presented in this study are available on request from corresponding authors.

Online appendix

Electronic supplementary material (ESM) can be found in the online version at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-025-0731-2 and https://journal.hep.com.cn/foms/EN/10.1007/s11706-025-0731-2 that includes Figs. S1–S11 and Table S1–S3.

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