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Xue, Y. Li, Y. Fan, A. Huang, M. Li, M. Croft, T. Tyson, Z. Ke and G. Li, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019, DOI:
10.1039/C9TA09397D.
Volume 6
Number 12
28 March 2018
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ARTICLE
(MOFs). CoFe-LDH precursor performs as an adjustable metal release source, controlling heterogeneous nucleation for 2D
MOFs. Compared with most cobalt-based electrocatalysts, the optimized CoFe 2D MOFs exhibits a superior WOR
performance on glassy-carbon electrodes (overpotential of 274 mV at 10 mA cm-2, a Tafel slope of 46.7 mV dec-1) and long-
term stability, due to the unique 2D characteristics and coupling effect between Co and Fe ions. More importantly, this work
highlights the ability to transformation from 2D LDHs to 2D MOFs, and reveals the intrinsic factors for excellent performance
in WOR.
Education, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s for WOR, for the first time, prepared from the transformation
Republic of China of precursor CoFe-LDHs as the template. So far, there are
c Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey,
Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, For Ni-based materials, the addition of Fe dramatically
Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China enhances WOR activity. But for Co-based materials, it is not
Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) available:. See
DOI: 10.1039/x0xx00000x well-documented and CoFe-based materials usually show more
modest WOR activity compared with NiFe-based materials.49-53 View Article Online
So it is a significant challenge to construct novel CoFe-based DOI: 10.1039/C9TA09397D
materials with better activity than CoFe-LDHs and explore the
relevant mechanism. More importantly, LDHs own adjustable
and reasonable layer spacing, allowing ligands to attack inner
2 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
revealed that LM-160-12 owned characteristics of inherent 2D environment between bivalent cobalt and terephthalic acid to form
structural periodicity, which may provide exposed active surfaces for 2D MOFs. Next, we carried out a dissociation experiment to monitor
MOFs-based electrocatalysts.47,49 the cations release of precursors CoFe-LDH, soaked in DMF at 160 °C
To further identify the transformation process from LDH to 2D MOFs, measured by ICP-MS. Shown in Fig. 3d, the dissociation ratio of Co/Fe
active metal content and ratio of all specimens were measured by was between 3.5 for the initial 6 hours and decreased to 2.9 after 42
inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Both Co hours, which significantly exceeded the the initial ratio of Co/Fe 2.0
and Fe content showed a downward trend with increase of for precursor CoFe-LDH. In other words, the dissociation of cobalt
transformation temperature and time (Fig. 3a-b), because of Co and was faster than iron in the beginning, which facilitated that ligand
terephthalic was more inclined to coordinate with cobalt in the early
stage of heterogeneous nucleation. These suggested that precursor
CoFe-LDH, an adjustable metal release source, played a key role in
the ligand-mediated transformation process (Fig. 3e). Shown in Fig.
3e-f and S8, ligand terephthalic molecules separated the 2D bimetal
layers along a axis, which were composed of pseudo octahedral
[CoO6] and [FeO6]. Here, the unsaturated metal sites (green dashed
circle) on the surface of LM-160-12 satisfied the desirable four-
electron pathway for WOR (Fig. 3f). However, there were four sets of
non-equivalent octahedral [MO6], derived from different metal
centers and ligands containing oxygen (Fig. 3g). So it is an enormous
challenge to clarify the specific reaction pathways and active centers
(Co or Fe).49-53
All electrochemical measurements for WOR were performed with
1.0 M KOH solutions as electrolyte. As shown in Fig. 4a, the linear
sweep voltammetry (LSV) curves were investigated to compare each
specimen’s WOR catalytic activity. It should be noted that a rather
small overpotential (274 mV) was required for the LM-160-12 to
deliver a current density of 10 mA cm-2 (Fig. 4b), which is comparable
with commercial RuO2 (271 mV) and superior to most cobalt-based
Fig. 3 Identification of the transformation process by comparing active metal and pristine MOFs electrocatalysts (Table S1 and S2). Interestingly,
content and ratio. Measured metal content of Co (a), Fe (b) and molar ratio the specimen LM-160-24, possessing better crystallinity and specific
of Co/Fe (c). The dissociation of cations for CoFe-LDH soaked in DMF at 160 surface than LM-160-12, exhibited lower WOR catalytic activity. To
°C (d). Schematic diagram of structural transformation from LDH to 2D MOFs
(e). Local unsaturated (green dashed circle) model for the metals on surface
understand how and why weakly crystalline 2D MOFs LM-160-12
of LM-160-12 (f) and four sets of non-equivalent [MO6] octahedra (g). Blue possess the best WOR electrocatalytic activity, correlative Tafel
for Co, orange for Fe, red for O, grey for C, and white for H. slopes was performed in Fig. 4c. The LM-160-12 showed the smallest
Tafel slope (46.7 mV dec-1) compared with isostructural LM-160-24
Fe ions only from precursors CoFe-LDH in the transformation
(46.9 mV dec-1) and the other specimens, indicating better kinetic
process. The molar ratio for Co/Fe, however, varied between 2.2 for
activity possibly due to fast mass transport and electron transfer.
the LM-160-12 with the most 2D characteristics to 1.5 for LM-160-36
Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was also conducted to
(Fig. 3c). It coincided well with the PXRD results that high proportion
evaluate the electron transfer ability and understand reaction
of iron content tends to form microporous structure MIL-88B(Fe).
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx J. Name., 2013, 00, 1-3 | 3
kinetics (Fig. 4d). The equivalent circuit model (the inset of Fig. 4d) to higher valence state Co was induced by the π-donation between
View Article Online
was set to fit the impedance responses, where Rs represents solution Fe3+ and bridging O2-, because enhanced π-donation triggered more
DOI: 10.1039/C9TA09397D
resistance, Rct represents electron transfer resistance, Rp represents partial charge transfer from Co2+ to O2-, which may contribute to the
surface porosity and CPE stands for the constant phase element. The LM-160-12 with best activity.
Rct and Rp value of the LM-160-12 (47.8 and 3.4 ohm) was smaller To probe the electronic and local structural motifs, X-ray absorption
compared the LSV curves normalized by ECSA for all samples in Fig.
S12, where the LM-160-12 was superior to others in intrinsic WOR
activity and their WOR activity tendency was not entirely consistent
with the LSV curves in Fig. 4a. Interestingly, the results indicate that
the differences in the WOR performance are not only originated from
exposed active sites but also the intrinsic activity. To investigate the
long-term electrocatalytic stability, we took chronopotentiometric
measurement to evaluate the 2D MOFs LM-160-12 loaded on both
glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and nickel foam (NF). As revealed in
Fig. S13, the durability of LM-160-12 loaded on GCE maintained a 10
h stability with slight decrease in activity, and it was supposed that
bubble breakup resulted in catalyst shedding due to fast oxygen
evolution. When replaced with applicable NF as support, a highly
stable current density of 10 mA cm-2 was obtained for at least 70 h.
Importantly, the HRTEM, HAADF-STEM and EDXS mapping images
(Fig. S14) of LM-160-12 nanosheets loaded on NF after long-term
stability test were consistent with observation before pre-reaction.
The PXRD pattern results (Fig. S15) also illustrated that the diffraction
peaks of 2D MOFs, (200), (201) and (-201) facets, were still retained
modestly after long-term reaction. Moreover, the valence electron
structures before and after electrocatalysis were further confirmed
by XPS. From XPS results (Fig. S16), the binding energy of Fe 2p3/2
shifted to low binding energy, while opposite up-shift was observed Fig. 5 (a) Fe 2p3/2 and (b) Co 2p3/2 high resolution XPS spectra of precursor
for Co 2p3/2 at the same time. It suggested that long-term CoFe-LDH, LM-160-12 and LM-160-24. (c) The Fe K-edge and (d) Co K-edge
electrocatalysis promoted the charge transfer from Fe to Co by the XANES spectra for LM-160-12 and LM-160-24, and standard FeO, La2FeVO6,
ligands containing oxygen, and deeper study on electronic structures CoO and LaCoO3. (e), (f) Expanded pre-edge peaks comparison of LM-160-12
and LM-160-24, respectively.
should be implemented.
accordance with previous report on metal doping engineering in
Next, to further verify the bimetal interaction, the XPS survey was
MOFs.54 The broad unresolved Co-K main edge peak near 7725 eV in
carried out. As shown in Fig. S17, four elements Co, Fe, O and C were
LM-160-12, compared to the sharper features in the LM-160-24
detected on the surface for all specimens. And the molar ratio of
spectrum (Fig. 5d) should also be noted. This broadening is
Co/Fe measured by XPS was consistent with that detected by ICP-MS
consistent with a significant structural distortion of nearest
(Table S4). After the transform from LDH to 2D MOFs, the O2- 1s
neighbours to Co sites in the former system compared to the latter.55
(530.7 eV for CoFe-LDH) peak shifted to higher binding energies
In the Fe and Co pre-edge region, two pre-edge peaks around 7114.2
(531.2 eV for LM-160-12 and LM-160-24), respectively (Fig. S18).
eV and 7709.8 eV were shown both in the LM-160-12 and LM-160-
Meantime, the Fe3+ 2p3/2 shifted to low binding energy (Fig. 5a), and
24 (Fig. 5e-f). Both peaks were derived from the transition, from
the same up-shift was obtained for Co2+ 2p3/2 (Fig. 5b). The above
quadrupole allowed 1s to 3d and dipole allowed 1s to 3d-4p hybrid
results indicated that part of electron was transferred from Co2+ to
orbitals.56 Here non-centrosymmetric distortions enhance the
Fe3+ through the bridging oxygen, which could adjust the electron
stronger transitions into the 3d-4p hybrid orbitals, and the enhanced
density of the metal sites. It is obvious that the peroxidation of Co2+
4 | J. Name., 2012, 00, 1-3 This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 20xx
pre-edge feature spectral weight for the LM-160-12 material 4 M. T. M. Koper, J. Electroanal. Chem., 2011, 660,View 254-260.
Article Online
supports a more strongly distorted and unsaturated local 5 J. Zhang, Q. Zhang and X. Feng, Adv. Mater., 31, 1808167.
DOI: 10.1039/C9TA09397D
6 C. Tang, H.-F. Wang and Q. Zhang, Acc. Chem. Res., 2018, 51,
environment. In general, the combination of XANES, ESCA and 881-889.
morphology characterization clearly revealed that the existence of 7 F. Song, L. Bai, A. Moysiadou, S. Lee, C. Hu, L. Liardet and X.
more coordination unsaturated metal sites and local structural Hu, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2018, 140, 7748-7759.
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transformation from 2D LDHs. Furthermore, the precursor LDHs 14 X. Xu, H. Liang, F. Ming, Z. Qi, Y. Xie and Z. Wang, ACS Catal.,
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heterogeneous nucleation process, forming layered bimetal 2D 15 J.-S. Li, Y. Wang, C.-H. Liu, S.-L. Li, Y.-G. Wang, L.-Z. Dong, Z.-H.
Dai, Y.-F. Li and Y.-Q. Lan, Nat. Commun., 2016, 7, 11204.
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Conflicts of interest 4, 112-119.
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