Pristine versus Pyrolyzed Metal–Organic Framework-based Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts: Evaluation of Intrinsic Activity Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as outstanding electrocatalysts for water oxidation. Commonly, MOFs are utilized for electrocatalytic water oxidation either in pristine or pyrolyzed form. Yet, despite significant advancements in their catalytic performance, further improvement requires new insights on the parameters influencing MOF-based catalysts activity. Here, we have conducted a detailed comparison between the intrinsic electrocatalytic properties of pristine and pyrolyzed Ni-Fe-based MOFs. Interestingly, although pristine MOF exhibits the maximum overall electrocatalytic performance, apparent turnover frequency (TOF) values (intrinsic activity) of all pyrolyzed MOFs exceeded the one of pristine MOF. Moreover, an upper-limit estimation of TOF was extracted using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), by excluding IR-drops linked with the electrochemical cell. By doing so, EIS-extracted TOF values were 10-times higher compared to the apparent TOFs. Accordingly, a great leap in performance should still be expected for these catalysts, by designing conductive MOF-platforms having larger pore-diameters to reduce mass-transport limitations.