A review of series transition metal-based MOFs materials and derivatives for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has an important influence in the development of green and sustainable energy, and it is urgent to find the effective electrocatalysts to reduce their overpotential. MOFs materials have adjustable pore structure and polymetallic sites. Unsaturated metal sites are located on the material surface, which can be used as catalytic activity centers. However, intrinsic activity hinders the application in water splitting, and the necessary methods for the production of highly active catalytic materials are vulcanization and oxidation of the materials. Catalytic materials have been explored for monometallic, bimetallic, and trimetallic MOFs. Carbon-coated and doped MOF catalysts with core-shell structural features have been further investigated. MOF-based materials are widely used as OER electrocatalysts due to their inherent porous structure and excellent tunability. The experimental results and theories obtained have been compared through DFT calculation, and it is judged that the material obtained is a catalyst with excellent OER activity. Meanwhile combined with experimental and theoretical research, the thorough comprehension of the functional active site and underlying mechanisms for enhancing OER are emphatically emphasized. Through the overall comparison of these MOFs materials, it can be found that bimetallic materials have higher electrocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution than monometallic materials. MOFs materials derived from core-shell structure or obtained by carbon coating and doping not only have the stable and good OER activity, but also the shell formed by them can prevent further dissolution of metal cores. More importantly, it is found that only metal centers with good contact with the electrolyte are the electrochemically active. The intrinsic activity of MOF on OER can be effectively improved by synergistic interaction between polymetallic active sites. In this case, it can offer a promising concept for researching high-performance electrocatalysts based on MOF for OER. It is conducive to the synthesis of high-ratio oxygen-vacancy MOF catalysts. In addition, through the comprehensive reference of such articles, most of them describe the MOF materials synthesized by one or two metals alone, and this article is a summary of MOF materials with good properties. The emergence of these materials is an opportunity for high-performance oxygen evolution materials, which can provide the possibility to replace the expensive catalysts in the future.