Bifunctional bimetallic Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks with nanoflower structure for sodium-ion storage and non-enzymatic glucose sensing

Although Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) is widely applied in energy storage and catalysis fields, its multifunction applications are extremely limited by its closed rhombohedral dodecahedron structure. Herein, bimetallic CoFe-ZIF with an open nanoflower structure is synthesized by a simple one-step stirring strategy at room temperature. CoFe-ZIF exhibits superior sodium-ion storage performance as the anode for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and glucose sensing performance as the electrode for non-enzymatic glucose sensor, as a result of synergistic effect between metal ions and highly-open nanoflower structure. CoFe-ZIF exhibits a specific capacity of 410.32 mA h/g at the current density of 0.10 A/g after 500 cycles for SIBs and a high sensitivity of 1484.22 μA mM−1 cm−2 in the range of 0.30-2.00 mM for glucose sensor, which also shows a low detection limit of less than 25 μM. This work also provides insight to design bimetallic MOFs by a simple strategy for multifunctional device applications.