Metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) are a class of porous materials obtained by the self-assembly of organic ligands and metal ions. They have adjustable pore structure and rich coordination unsaturated active sites, so they have a wide range of catalytic fields. Application prospects. However, most of the MOFs materials have the disadvantages of low conductivity and slow mass transfer. Therefore, it is still a major challenge to directly use MOFs materials in the field of electrocatalysis.
Recently, the team of Cao Rong and Li Hongfang from the State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry of the Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has succeeded under the funding of the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Strategic Pilot Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Key Research Program of Frontier Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences An egg yolk shell composite with a hollow mesoporous carbon sphere-coated metal organic frame ZIF-67 was designed and synthesized, and used as an electrocatalyst in electrocatalytic oxygen reduction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and zinc void. battery. This design effectively improves the electrical conductivity of ZIF-67 material while using the cavity confined effect, and successfully reduced the size of ZIF-67 from 1 micron to 100 nanometers, exposing more Co-Nx coordination unsaturated sites on its surface. . The composite material has excellent electrocatalytic activity and battery performance. The Co-Nx coordination unsaturated site in ZIF-67 in the composite material is the main catalytic active center, while the hollow mesoporous carbon sphere and ZIF-67 Synergistic effect, effectively improve the electrocatalytic performance of the material.
The composite materials synthesized in this work are expected to become electrocatalysts in fuel cells and electrolytic cells in renewable energy. At the same time, this work provides new design ideas for the application of MOFs in the field of electrochemistry. Related research results were recently published in the National Science Review.