ZIF 67 Based Highly Active Electrocatalysts as Oxygen Electrodes in Water Electrolyzer

Mitigating high overpotential losses originating from the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) during water electrolysis is key to establishing a sustainable hydrogen generation technique. Herein we report a Co-imidazolate framework (ZIF 67) as an OER catalyst that exhibits high activity in both a three electrode cell and an electrolyzer. Additionally, Fe, Ni, and Zn have been incorporated into ZIF 67 to evaluate their effects on the OER activity of ZIF 67. Due to the high charge conductivity of ZIF 67, none of the reported catalyst was carbonized at high temperature, a process that is generally accompanied by significant mass loss. Hence, in addition to being highly active, these catalysts are scalable which makes them promising candidates for application in commercial power markets.