Carbon/copper oxide electrode materials with high atomic utilization constructed by in-situ induced growth strategy of nano metal-organic frameworks

Abstract

Carbon/metal composites derived from metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted widespread attention due to their excellent electronic conductivity, adjustable porosity, and outstanding stability. However, traditional synthesis methods are limited by the dense stereo geometry and large crystal grain size of MOFs, resulting in many metals active sites are buried in the carbon matrix. While the common strategy involves incorporating additional dispersed media into material, this leads to a decrease in practical metal content. In this study, nanosized copper-metal-organic frameworks (Cu-MOFs) are in-situ grown on surface of carbon spheres by pre-anchoring copper ions, and the hybrid composite of porous carbon/copper oxide with high copper atom utilization rate is prepared through activation and pyrolysis methods. This strategy effectively addresses the issue of insufficient exposure of metal sites, and the obtained composite material exhibits high effective copper atom utilization rate, large specific surface area (2052.3 m2·g−1), diverse pore structure, outstanding specific capacity (1076.5F·g−1 at 0.5 A·g−1), and excellent cycle stability. Furthermore, this highly atom-economical universal method has positive significance in application fields of catalysis, energy storage, and adsorption.