Growth of trimetallic CeFeNi-MOF-74 on nickel foam as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting

Abstract

In order to facilitate the industrial synthesis of hydrogen from electrolytic water on a wide scale, high-performance non-precious metal electrocatalysts that can substitute precious metal electrocatalysts must be developed. This paper reports a trimetallic CeFeNi-MOF-74 electrocatalyst grown on nickel foam (NF) by solvothermal method. The introduction of trimetallics gives the metal–organic framework (MOF) materials synergistic and complementary properties, resulting in better catalytic properties of the materials. Tuning the electronic structure of materials to Optimise electrocatalytic performance by adjusting metal ratio. It was found that the prepared Ce_0.9FeNi-MOF-74 exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In 1 M KOH, the overpotential is only 262 mV for HER at a current density of 100 mA cm⁻² and 257 mV for OER at a current density of 100 mA cm⁻². For overall water splitting (OWS), a low voltage of only 1.68 V is required to achieve a 10 mA cm⁻² current density. The excellent catalytic performance of Ce_0.9FeNi-MOF-74 exceeds that of many commercial catalysts. This study provides new insights into the synthesis of high-performance and stable MOF electrocatalysts.