In Situ Synthesis of Surface-Mounted Novel Nickel(II) Trimer-Based MOF on Nickel Oxide Hydroxide Heterostructures for Enhanced Methanol Electro-Oxidation

Ya-Ya Sun; Yan-Jiang Wang; Qiu Pi; Ya-Pan Wu; Xue-Qian Wu; Shuang Li; Ya-Qian Lan; Qichun Zhang; Dong-Sheng Li

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.780688

In Situ Synthesis of Surface-Mounted Novel Nickel(II) Trimer-Based MOF on Nickel Oxide Hydroxide Heterostructures for Enhanced Methanol Electro-Oxidation

Front Chem. 2021 Nov 29:9:780688. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.780688. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Ya-Ya Sun^{1

2}, Yan-Jiang Wang^{1

2}, Qiu Pi¹, Ya-Pan Wu^{1

2}, Xue-Qian Wu¹, Shuang Li¹, Ya-Qian Lan¹, Qichun Zhang¹, Dong-Sheng Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Inorganic Nonmetallic Crystalline and Energy Conversion Materials, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China.
² Hubei Three Gorges Laboratory, Yichang, China.

Abstract

Engineering the heterogeneous interface fusing MOFs and inorganic active component is an effective strategy to improve the electrochemical performance. Herein, we report a new Ni₃-based MOF (denoted as CTGU-24) with an infrequent two-fold interpenetrating 3D (3,8)-connected network constructed from Ni(II) trimer and mixed tripodal tectonics for the electrocatalytic methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). In order to improve its stability and activities, the heterogeneous hybrid CTGU-24@NiOOH has been fabricated successfully via the first preparation of the NiOOH nanosphere and then in situ formation of CTGU-24 decorated on the NiOOH surface. Moreover, the integration of CTGU-24@NiOOH and different additives [acetylene black (AB) and ketjen black (KB)], resulting in the optimized hybrid sample AB&CTGU-24@NiOOH (4:4). It attains better MOR performance with an area-specific peak current density of 34.53 mA·cm^-2 than pure CTGU-24 (14.99 mA·cm^-2) and improved durability in an alkali medium. The new findings indicate that the CTGU-24@NiOOH heterostructure formed in situ and the integration of moderate additives are critical to optimizing and improving electrocatalytic activity of pure MOF crystalline material.

Keywords: crystal structure; heterogeneous composites; in situ synthesis; metal-organic framework; methanol oxidation; nickel oxide hydroxide.