Random Occupation of Multi-Metal Sites in Transition Metal-Organic Frameworks for Boosting Water Oxidation

Developing robust oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts with excellent performance is essential for conversion of renewable electricity to clean fuel. Herein, we present a facile concept for the design of efficient high entropy metal-organic frameworks (HEMOFs) as electrocatalyst by one-step solvothermal synthesis. The strategy allows for control of the microstructure and corresponding lattice distortion by tuning the metal ion composition. As a result, the OER activity was improved by optimising the coordination environment of the metal catalytic center. The environment affects the electronic density and consequently binding energies of oxygenated intermediates at the metal ion centers. The optimized Co-rich HEMOFs exhibited a low overpotential of 310 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 , better than RuO₂ catalyst. The finding involves lattice distortion of the high entropy MOFs provides more strategy for developing high-performance electrocatalyst for energy conversion.