ZIF-67/COF-derived highly dispersed Co3O4/N-doped porous carbon with excellent performance for oxygen evolution reaction and Li-ion batteries

Herein we report a facile bottom-up strategy to prepare highly dispersed supported Co 3 O 4 on N-doped Porous Carbon (NPC). Specifically, ZIF-67 (ZIF   =   Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks) microcrystals firstly grow on benzoic acid modified covalent organic framework (BFC), resulting in ZIF-67/COF composite. Subsequently, highly dispersed Co 3 O 4 /NPC was obtained via the calcination of ZIF-67/COF. Interestingly, high dispersion of supported Co 3 O 4 is dominated by homogeneous distribution of benzoic acid auchoring on nanoporous COF . More notably, largely triggered by the porosity and confining effect of COF , the resultant Co 3 O 4 /NPC features highly active crystal plane and a large specific surface area of 228.0   m 2 /g. Furthermore, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) measurement results demonstrated that highly dispersed Co 3 O 4 /NPC features good catalytic activity (330   mV overpotential at 10   mA.cm −2 , 79   mV.dec −1 Tafel slope and mass activity of 130   A.g −1 at overpotential of 400   mV) and durable stability, superior to currently available counterparts. Moreover, Li-ion battery (LIB) tests also showed high reversible capacity (785   mA.h.g −1 at 500   mA.g −1 ) as well as excellent cycling stability and rate performance. Furthermore, Density functional theory (DFT) calculation results demonstrated that these superior OER properties can be attributed to the geometrical and electronic effects of Co 3 O 4 /NPC on activation and adsorption/desorption of reaction species.