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Controlling the Interfacial Charge Polarization of MOF-Derived 0D-2D vdW Architectures as a Unique Strategy for Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysis.

Md Ariful AhsanTianwei HeMuftah H El-NaasAboubakr M AbdullahMohamed Fathi SanadAli K AldalbahiBonifacio Alvarado-TenorioAijun DuAlain R Puente SantiagoJuan C Noveron
Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces (2022)
The design of alternative earth-abundant van der Waals (vdW) nanoheterostructures for bifunctional oxygen evolution/reduction (OER/ORR) electrocatalysis is of paramount importance to fabricate energy-related devices. Herein, we report a simple metal-organic framework (MOF)-derived synthetic strategy to fabricate low-dimensional (LD) nanohybrids formed by zero-dimensional (0D) ZrO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) and heteroatom-doped two-dimensional (2D) carbon nanostructures. The 2D platforms controlled the electronic structures of interfacial Zr atoms, thus producing optimized electron polarization for boron and nitrogen-doped carbon (BCN)/ZrO 2 nanohybrids. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and theoretical studies revealed the key role of the synergistic couple effect of boron (B) and nitrogen (N) in interfacial electronic polarization. The BCN/ZrO 2 nanohybrid showed excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic activity, delivering an overpotential (η 10 ) of 301 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA-cm -2 for the OER process and a half-wave potential ( E 1/2 ) of 0.85 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) for the ORR process, which are comparable to the state-of-the-art LD nanohybrids. Furthermore, BCN/ZrO 2 also showed competitive performances for water-splitting and zinc-air battery devices. This work establishes a new route to fabricate highly efficient multifunctional electrocatalysts by tuning the electronic polarization properties of 0D-2D electrochemical interfaces.
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