Metal oxide/carbon nanosheet arrays derivative of stacked metal organic frameworks for triggering oxygen evolution reaction

Numerous clean energy systems rely on the oxygen evolution process (OER), which takes place during water splitting reaction. For this purpose, transition-metal oxides have garnered considerable attentions as a prominent OER electrocatalysts. In present study, we fabricate the nanosheet arrays of metal oxide/carbon (MOx/C; M = Fe, Ag, and Mn) fabricated via hydrothermal route. As templates, this approach employs the covered 2-dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks (2D-MOFs), and these MOx/C arrays made from 2D MOFs exhibit significant electrocatalytic activity and durability. Among all, Ag₂O/C showed the overpotentials of 270 mV at a current density (j) of 10 mA cm⁻², while the tafel slope is 45 mV dec⁻¹, that is lower than other metal oxide-based catalysts like MnO/C, and Fe₂O₃/C. It also shows 48 h high stability due to the conductive nature, larger surface area and the presence of carbon cage for easy transfer of electrons. The conceptual framework and synthetic strategy employed in this study can be applied to create more multi-metal oxide anchoring Ag₂O carbon matrix-based electrocatalysts that are extremely efficient, affordable, and perform significantly better in OER and other future applications.