Nickel–copper bimetal organic framework nanosheets as a highly efficient catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media

There is an urgent need to develop efficient non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media. Herein, we report a hydrothermal growth method to synthesize a NiCu-MOF nanosheet array on Ni foam (NiCu-MOFNs/NF) as an efficient OER catalyst. The catalyst exhibits a small overpotential of only 309 mV at 100 mA cm−2 in 1.0 M KOH. In addition, the catalytic activity remained stable for at least 22 h in 1.0 M KOH, and the turnover frequency (TOF) was calculated as 0.231 mol O2 s−1 at an overpotential of 400 mV.