Decorating highly-conjugated and electron-rich Co-MOF with Ni3S2 for improved oxygen evolution and urea oxidation reactions

The development of high-performance non-noble metal electrocatalysts for water splitting is critical for sustainable hydrogen production but remains challenging due to the moderate activity, sluggish kinetics, and unsatisfying durability of oxygen evolution reaction catalysts. To overcome these limitations, this work integrates rigid conjugated metal-organic frameworks with heterointerface engineering to boost electrocatalytic performance. Furthermore, substituting the energy-intensive OER with the urea oxidation reaction presents a promising approach to lower energy consumption. Herein, we design and synthesize a composite catalyst, Ni3S2-CoFcDCA/NF, comprising Ni3S2 and a cobalt ferrocenedicarboxylate MOF. The synergistic interaction between Ni3S2 and CoFcDCA not only enhances electron transfer but also exposes abundant active sites, resulting in exceptional OER and UOR performance. The catalyst achieves a current density of 50 mA cm−2 at remarkably low overpotentials of 202 mV for OER and 1.39 V for UOR in alkaline media. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the optimized d-band center position in NiOOH/CoFcDCA regulates the adsorption energetics of oxygen intermediates, particularly lowering the activation barrier for the OH* → O* transition, thereby accelerating the OER kinetics. This study highlights the potential of heterostructured MOF-based catalysts for efficient water splitting and offers valuable guidance for designing cost-effective non-noble metal electrocatalysts.