Electrostatically directed assembly of two-dimensional ultrathin Co2Ni-MOF/Ti3C2Tx nanosheets for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution

Hydrogen production from water electrolysis is severely restricted by the poor reaction kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this work, a series of two-dimensional (2D) composites MOF/Ti3C2Tx (the MXene phase) were fabricated by electrostatically directed assembly and used as catalysts for OER. The obtained composite materials exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic properties, thanks to the ultrathin 2D/2D heterostructure with abundant active sites in Co2Ni-MOF and the high electronic conductivity of Ti3C2Tx. Among all the catalysts, Co2Ni-MOF@MX-1 achieved the best oxygen evolution performance with the lowest Tafel slope (51.7 mV dec−1) and the lowest overpotential (265 mV on carbon paper) at the current density of 10 mA cm−2. These results demonstrated that the synthesis of 2D composite materials by electrostatically directed assembly could be a feasible and promising method for the preparation of 2D heterostructure catalysts.