Hierarchically heterostructured Pt/CrN-TiN derived from metal organic frameworks as an efficient electrocatalyst for methanol oxidation reaction

Exploiting cost-effective and highly efficient electrocatalysts toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is meaningful but challenging. Metal-organic framework (MOF)-based de-rivatives have attracted much attention of the community in various research fields. Herein, a novel metal-organic framework derived three dimensional (3D) heterostructure (Pt/CrN-TiN) has been synthesized as an efficient MOR electrocatalyst through interfacial engineering. Benefiting from the unique 3D penetrating structure and the abundant het-erogeneous interfaces, the Pt/CrN-TiN heterostructure exposed maximum active sites, open diffusion channels, and accelerated electron transfer at heterogeneous interfaces, thus modulating adsorption/desorption behavior of targeted reactants/intermediates and eventually facilitating the MOR kinetics. Impressively, the designed Pt/CrN-TiN catalyst performed high catalytic activity toward methanol oxidation reaction (1.14 A mgpt ?1) compared to that of Pt/CrN (0.18 A mgpt ?1), Pt/TiN (0.64 A mgpt ?1) and Pt/C (0.44 A mgpt ?1), respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the existing hetero-interfaces optimize the free energy of intermediates during MOR, accelerating the reaction kinetics. We believe that the current work provides new insight and useful guidance for fabricating advanced electrocatalysts.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.