MOF-Derived Selenium-Enriched Hollow NiCo2O4/NiO Nanocages for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Finding clean, sustainable, and environmentally friendly technologies is especially crucial in addressing both energy and environmental challenges. Intending to accelerate the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) which happens at the anode and and to decrease the energy consumption for water-splitting at a large scale, exploring high-performing electrocatalysts is an imperative undertaking essential to maximize the practical applicability of water splitting. Developing electrocatalysts through strategic surface modifications represents a significant approach to the deliberate creation of exceptionally active catalytic centers through rational means. Considerable attention has been focused on the advancement of mixed oxides based on transition metals as highly active electrocatalysts. In the present work, we have successfully synthesized electrocatalysts for the OER as elemental selenium incorporated hollowed NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO nanocages by employing precise control over the structure and composition of the material. The findings demonstrated that the surface reconstructed hollowed structure with plenty of thin nanocages enhancement of 5 wt% Se-NiCo 2 O 4 /NiO resulted in an increased quantity of corresponding edge active sites. This structural achievement further expedited mass transport and due to increased conductivity sped up the charge transfer processes within the system, exhibited remarkable activity for the OER, displaying a low overpotential (η=288 mV) at a current density ( j ) of 10 mA cm −2 and a Tafel slope (66.7 mV dec −1 ) including better stability. This work offers a viable and versatile method for fabricating a range of functional coordinated MOF compounds that hold potential for utilization across diverse energy applications including storage, conversion, and environmental purposes. Figure 1