Fully fluorinated hybrid zeolite imidazole/Prussian blue analogs with combined advantages for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Hybrid metal-organic framework (MOF) derivatives play a significant role in the novel catalyst development in energy conversion reactions. Here, we demonstrated the low-temperature fully fluorinated zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF) coupled with a three-dimensional open framework Prussian blue analog (PBA) with combined advantages for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in water splitting reaction. The spectroscopic analysis and the electrochemical studies revealed the combined advantages of efficient electronic effect and active site synergism. Because of good conductivity improvement by N-doped carbon derived from ZIF and the high electrochemical surface area and active site exposure from PBA derivatives, good catalytic performance was obtained on the optimal catalyst of CoNi ZIF/CoFe-PBA-F-300, which required a low overpotential of 250 mV to reach 10 mA/cm2 loaded on the glassy carbon electrode, with Tafel slope of 47.4 mV/dec, and very high dynamic and steady stability. In addition, the multi-component with the mixed structure from highly polar metal fluorides promoted the easy formation of the active phase as revealed by the post-sample analysis. The current results showed a novel composite catalyst materials development from the hybrid MOF derivatives, which would be promising in the electrolysis of water oxidation reactions and energy-relevant catalysis reactions.