Ni/Fe based bimetallic coordination complexes with rich active sites for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

Efficient electrocatalysts are vital for accelerating the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Metal coordination complexes (MCCs) consisting of central metals and surrounding ligands generally possess abundant active sites owing to the rich boundaries between short-range crystalline components, making them promising candidates for tailored electrocatalysts. Herein, Ni/Fe based bimetallic MCCs with hybrid ligands are successfully constructed. With rich active sites residing in nanocrystal boundaries, bimetallic synergistic effect, and quick mass transfer derived from the nanosheet-like structure, excellent OER performance in terms of overpotential (229 mV at 10 mA cm−2) and Tafel slope (30 mV dce−1) is achieved. This unique architecture can shed light on the coordination design of highly efficient OER electrocatalysts.