Boosting CO2 electroreduction performance over fullerene-modified MOF-545-Co promoted by π–π interaction

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have showed high promise in CO 2 -electroreduction, yet their generally insufficient conductivity or low electron-transfer efficiency have largely restricted the wide-spread applications. Herein, fullerene molecules ( i.e ., C 60 and C 70 ) have been successfully introduced into the pore-channels of a Co-porphyrin based MOF through a facile strategy. Thus-obtained hybrid materials present higher electron-transfer ability, CO 2 adsorption-enthalpy and enhanced CO 2 electroreduction activity. Notably, the charge transfer resistance ( R ct ) of C 60 @MOF-545-Co is almost 5 times lower of than that of MOF-545-Co, as well as 1.5 times increased for the CO 2 adsorption enthalpy. As expect, the FE CO of C 60 @MOF-545-Co (97.0%) is largely higher than MOF-545-Co (70.2%), C 60 @MOF-545 (19.4%), C 60 (11.5%) and physical mixture (70.3%) and presented as one of the best CO 2 electroreduction catalysts reported in H-cell system. The facile strategy would give rise to new insight into the exploration of powerful MOF-based hybrid materials in high-efficiency CO 2 electroreduction. Fullerene is successfully introduced into the channels of MOF-545-Co through an impregnation method and the introducing of C 60 largely increases the electrocatalytic performance of MOF material for CO 2 RR.