One pot solvothermal synthesis of Zr-MOF and DNA-encapsulated Zr-MOF for improved current density towards OER

The global energy crisis and environmental pollution requires an urgent shift to renewable energy sources. Electrochemical water splitting is an emerging and promising method to generate hydrogen which is clean and sustainable energy carrier. To facilitate the sluggish Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER), contemporary society has been actively searching for an electrocatalyst that can be synthesized easily, exhibits remarkable catalytic activity and maintains extraordinary stability over time. In this paper, solvothermal method was used to synthesize a Zr-MOF and DNA encapsulated-MOF in context of making the best use of the synergistic behavior of the material. To further confirm the synthesized samples various characterization techniques like PXRD, SEM, BET and FT-IR were performed. The electrochemical results show that synthesized DNA encapsulated Zr-MOF have small Tafel value of 59 mV/dec, a lower value of onset potential of 1.49 V, a lower over potential value of 294 mV and had high electrochemical surface area of 411.25 cm2. The Chronoamperometry test also shows the high structure stability of material over 50 hours. This work highlights the potential of Zr-MOF based materials as effective and robust catalyst for electrochemical water splitting to replace the electrocatalysts that are based on noble metals for energy conversion and storage.