Enhancing selectivity through decrypting the uncoordinated zirconium sites in MOF electrocatalysts.

Zirconium (Zr)-based porphyrinic metal-organic frameworks (PCN-223-M) were employed as the electrocatalysts to explore the effect of uncoordinated Zr sites on the performance of the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). PCN-223-AA with the lowest uncoordinated number of 0.79 exhibited the highest FE(CO) of 90.7%. It was demonstrated that the catalytic performance of PCN-223-M showed negative correlation to the uncoordinated Zr sites. This research provided a rational strategy to design efficient MOF electrocatalysts with few uncoordinated metal sites for highly selective CO2RR.