Facile Synthesis of CoO/Sm₂O₃@UiO-66-NH₂/NF Composite as Efficient Photocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Developing efficient metal-organic framework (MOF)-based photoelectro-catalysts towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has gained much research attention due to their unique properties, like high surface area, tunable pore size, and flexible pore size structure. In the present study, we report the facile synthesis of highly efficient MOF-based photoelectro-catalysts via incorporation of as-synthesized Sm2O3-based nanomaterials into Zr-based MOF-UiO-66-NH2 through the solvothermal method. All the synthesized materials are characterized via different analytical techniques. Among them, CoO/Sm2O3@UiO-66-NH2/NF exhibited efficient oxygen evolution (OER) activity, and it delivers 10 mA cm(-2) current density at just 254 mV overpotential, with a lower Tafel slope value of 92 mV dec(-1). Further, it was revealed that incorporating nanomaterials has improved the catalytic OER activity due to synergistic effect and hetero-junction formation. Furthermore, CoO/Sm2O3@UiO-66-NH2 has exhibited excellent stability, as there is negligible degradation in the current density before and after 1000th linear voltammetry sweeps. Based on these observations, it is believed that this study will trigger the development of more low overpotential MOFs-based OER photoelectro-catalysts.