Facile coordination driven synthesis of metal-organic gels toward efficiently electrocatalytic overall water splitting

The coordination driven self-assembled materials are in high demand of advanced energy chemistry, which remain largely unexplored. Here an ultra-simple and environmental friendly strategy for fabricating metalorganic gels (MOGs) in terms of electrochemical overall water splitting was reported. Through electrochemical testing, the Ni0.6Fe0.4-MOG achieves the lowest oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotential of 285 mV (j(10)), 347 mV (j(100)), 445 mV (j(500)) (GC electrode) and 173 mV (j(10), NF electrode) in 1 M KOH, an ultra-low Tafel slope of 33 mV dec(-1) and long-term stability, outperforming most of the reported polymer catalysts. On account of the moderate hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance (159 mV (j(10))), thereby can drive the two-electrode electrolyzer at a relatively low cell voltage of 1.61 V (1.48 V when using Pt/C as cathode) and no significant attenuation after 20 h. Our work has demonstrated that the MOGs could break the shackles of current polymer catalysts for electrocatalysis.

Automated summary

In this study, a strategy for fabricating metalorganic gels (MOGs) through electrochemical overall water splitting was reported. The Ni0.6Fe0.4-MOG exhibited excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance and moderate hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance in 1 M KOH, outperforming most polymer catalysts. This work demonstrates that MOGs have the potential to surpass current polymer catalysts for electrocatalysis.