Rational Design of a N, S co-Doped Supermicroporous CoFe-Organic Framework Platform for High-Efficient Water Oxidation.

It remains a challenge to rational design of a new metal organic framework (MOF) as highly efficient direct catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we developed a simple and effective method to explore a new pillared-layered MOF with syringic acid as a promising OER catalyst. The isostructural mono, heterobimetallic MOF and N, S co-doped MOF by mixing thiourea were quickly synthesized in a high yield under solvothermal condition. Moreover, the optimized N,S co-doped MOF exhibits the lowest overpotential of 254 mV at 10 mA cm-2 on a glass carbon electrode and a small Tafel slope of 50 mV dec-1, especially, this catalyst also possesses long-term electrochemical durability for at least 16 hrs. According to the characterization, the incorporation of N and S atoms into this heterobimetallic CoFe-MOF could modify its pore structure, tune the electronic structure, accordingly, improve the mass and electron transportation, and facilitate the formation of active species, as a consequence, the improved activity of this new N, S co-doped MOF for OER might mainly be ascribed to higher electrochemical activation to lead to the active species via the in-situ surface modification during OER process.