Construction of Co/Fe co-embedded in benzene tricarboxylic acid with modulated coordination environment for accelerated oxygen evolution reaction

The preparation of stable electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction is of the utmost importance to realize high performance water decomposition reaction . Metal-organic framework (MOF) nanostructures have become promising materials. Herein, we report three kinds of electrocatalysts with different structures and properties for the oxygen evolution reaction, which were constructed by using different binding sites of three kinds of ligands following a mechanism which involved only *O and *OH species as intermediates. CoFeBTC-MOF shows excellent overpotential η = 261 mV at 10 mA cm −2 (1.481 V vs. RHE), Tafel slope of 59.29 mV dec −1 and pretty excellent stability (48 h of continuous testing), making it become one of the best acid-resistant catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction. The DFT calculations show that there are different ways to transfer electrons . In addition, the coupling effect between Co and Fe metals is the key to regulate the electrocatalytic activity , confirming the cooperative catalysis mechanism with a reduced energy barrier.