Enhanced electrocatalytic performance of uniformly spherical Ni-MOF decorated with NiMoO₄ nanorods for oxygen evolution reaction

The creation of considerably effective electrocatalysts to reduce overpotentials is essential for speeding up the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) processes, which is imperatively required for the practical exploitation of electrochemical water-splitting. Herein, we prepared a unique composite structure, uniformly spherical Ni-MOF decorated with NiMoO₄ nanorods on Ni foam (NF), and assessed its performance toward oxygen evolution reaction. The synergistic effect between NiMoO₄ and Ni-MOF remarkably promoted the OER intrinsic activity. Moreover, introducing NiMoO₄ endowed the composite structure with enhanced electrical conductivity and exposed more active sites. The NiMoO₄/Ni-MOF/NF electrode exhibited exceptional electrocatalytic activity in 1.0 M KOH aqueous solution, with a low overpotential of 218 mV to drive the current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and a low Tafel slope (67.75 mV dec⁻¹), surpassing the benchmark RuO₂. The presented strategy opens a promising candidate for preparing novel non-precious metal OER electrocatalysts derived from MOF materials for sustainable energy applications.