Abstract
Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising strategy to improve the efficiency of oxygen evolution reactions (OERs). However, the efficient adsorption of visible light as well as long-term stability of light-harvesting electrocatalysis is the crucial issue in PEC cells. Metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived bimetallic electrocatalysis with its superior performance has wide application prospects in OER and PEC applications. Herein, we have fabricated a nickel and iron bimetallic organic framework (FeNi-MOF) deposited on top of anodized TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTA) for PEC and OER applications. The FeNi-MOF/TNTA was incorporated through the electrochemical deposition of Ni2+ and Fe3+ onto the surface of TNTA and then connected with organic ligands by the hydrothermal transformation. Therefore, FeNi-MOF/TNTA demonstrates abundant photoelectrocatalytic active sites that can enhance the photocurrent up to 1.91 mA/cm2 under 100 mW/cm2 and a negligible loss in activity after 180 min of photoreaction. The FeNi-MOF-doped photoanode shows predominant photoelectrochemical performance due to the boosted excellent light-harvesting ability, rapid photoresponse, and stimulated interfacial energy of charge separation under the UV-visible light irradiation conditions. The results of this study give deep insight into MOF-derived bimetallic nanomaterial synthesis for photoelectrochemical OER and provide guidance on future electrocatalysis design.
Highlights
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the half-reaction of the water oxidation process, which has attracted great research attention in recent years due to its significant role in various energy conversion and storage technologies [1,2]
The rapid recombination of electrons generated from Metal–organic framework (MOF) and the fast oxidization by charge transfer are the main problems for PEC systems
A recent study has demonstrated that a great enhancement on the performance of a water-splitting PEC could be achieved by using a surface-modified ZIF-67 MOF-derived semiconductor, which contains highly porous cobalt oxide (CoOx) and BiVO4 co-catalysts, as the photoanode to accelerate the kinetics of water oxidation rather than serving as a surface passivation layer [28]
Summary
The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the half-reaction of the water oxidation process, which has attracted great research attention in recent years due to its significant role in various energy conversion and storage technologies [1,2]. MOFs are kinds of porous and crystalline compounds that consist of metal ions or clusters coordinated to organic ligands to form one-, two-, or three-dimensional structures [14,16,17,18,19] They are a subclass of polymers with the special feature of microporous architectures, and they are regarded as a potential material for gas storage, purification, and separation, as well catalysis and energy applications [19,20,21]. The incorporation of Fe/Ni with TNTA significantly promotes the charge transfer kinetics and makes the close contact between the surface-active sites and reaction medium, enabling the excellent electrocatalytic performance of FeNi-MOF/TNTA on photoelectrochemical oxygen evaluation application. FeNi-MOF/TNTA significantly enhances the photocurrent response to 1.40 mA cm−2 under 100 mW cm−2 UV-visible light irradiation
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