Interface effect in MIL-53(Fe)/metal-phenolic network (Ni, Co, and Mn) nanoarchitectures for efficient oxygen evolution reaction

The interface nature of composite catalysts affected drastically the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) behavior. In this paper, nanoarchitecture consisted of Fe-based metal–organic frameworks (MIL-53) and metal-phenolic networks were created. Metal (Mn2+, Co2+, and Ni2+) phenolic networks were assembled on the surface of MIL-53 to form heterostructures. Among them, MIL-53(Fe)/Ni-phenolic network nanoarchitectures revealed the best electrochemical performance. The existence of MIL-53 enhanced the adsorption ability for OH− in the nanoarchitectures. The electron transfer between MIL-53 and Ni-phenolic networks adjusted the filling degree of eg orbitals to optimize the bonding strength between Fe3+/Ni2+ and oxygen intermediate species. MIL-53/Ni-phenolic networks nanoarchitectures exhibited well OER performance with a potential of 282 mV at 10 mA cm−2. This work provided an efficient insight into the structure-properties relation of a promising heterostructure catalyst for water splitting.