• Zhou, Yingtang
• Ejsmont, Aleksander
• Abazari, Reza
• Wang, Jinhu
• Goscianska, Joanna
• Sanati, Soheila

Abstract

Urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is one of the promising alternative anodicreactions to water oxidation that has attracted extensive attention in greenhydrogen production. The application of specifically designed electrocatalystscapable of declining energy consumption and environmental consequences isone of the major challenges in this field. Therefore, the goal is to achieve aresistant, low-cost, and environmentally friendly electrocatalyst. Herein, awater-stable fluorinated Cu(II) metalorganic framework (MOF){[Cu2(L)(H2O)2]·(5DMF)(4H2O)}n(Cu-FMOF-NH2;H4L=3,5-bis(2,4-dicarboxylic acid)-4-(trifluoromethyl)aniline) is developed utilizing an angulartetracarboxylic acid ligand that incorporates both trifluoromethyl (–CF3)andamine (–NH2) groups. The tailored structure of Cu-FMOF-NH2where linkersare connected by fluoride bridges and surrounded by dicopper nodes reveals a4,24T1 topology. When employed as electrocatalyst, Cu-FMOF-NH2requiresonly 1.31 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to deliver 10 mA cm−2current density in 1.0 m KOH with 0.33 m urea electrolyte and delivered aneven higher current density (50 mA cm−2) at 1.47 V versus RHE. Thisperformance is superior to several reported catalysts including commercialRuO2catalyst with overpotential of 1.52 V versus RHE. This investigationopens new opportunities to develop and utilize pristine MOFs as a potentialelectrocatalyst for various catalytic reactions.

Topics

• density
• impedance spectroscopy
• Hydrogen
• current density
• amine