Fused Hybrid Linkers for Metal–Organic Frameworks-Derived Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts

Noble metal free M-N-C oxygen electrocatalysts are generaly synthesized using inorganic salts, organometallic precursors, nanostructured carbon nanotubes, several dopants and carbonization under modifying environments such as NH3 or H2. Reducing synthesis steps or bringing versatility in post product is quite rare. We have introduced a series of metal-organic frameworks using iron/benzimidazole as the only primary precursor to obtain a uniform material. By merging catechol and imidazole units together, we prepared efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst. The proposed material outperforms the Pt-based materials with respect to electrocatalytic properties in alkaline media (ORR: Eon = 1.01 V, E1/2 = 0.87 V vs. RHE in 0.1 M KOH; OER: 1.60 V @10 mA cm–2 in 0.1 M KOH; ΔE = 0.73 V). It was also established that fine-tuning of organic linker can help to modulate the electrochemical properties of the single precursor based electro-catalyst material.