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oai:figshare.com:article/34018146 2026-09-28T18:07:38Z category_4 category_146 category_7 category_8 category_21 category_24 category_272 category_873 portal_63 item_type_6 month_year_09_2026

Superhydrophobic Porous Coordination Polymer-Confined Co3O4 Nanoparticles: A Sustainable Strategy for Electrochemical Water Splitting Ravula Nagaraju (13454103) Litun Kumar Pradhan (23146551) J. N. Behera (2520187) Koya Prabhakara Rao (1936177) Biochemistry Space Science Medicine Microbiology Biotechnology Evolutionary Biology Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified report three robust remarkable operational stability green hydrogen production 5 – 3 similar electrochemical conditions oxygen evolution reaction hydrogen evolution reaction maintaining consistent activity 96 mv dec 5 °, 159 122 mv dec overall water splitting electrochemical water splitting successful nanoparticle incorporation corresponding pristine mofs 4 </ sub zn (< b ni (< b 3 </ sub 2 </ b overall water 3 °, electrochemical activity splitting study reaction kinetics pristine frameworks parent mofs approximately 2 486 mv 169 mv tga analyses synthetic nanoparticle synthetic encapsulation sustainable strategy superior kinetics sonochemical approach relatively low lowest overpotentials koh electrolyte key steps framework integrity efficient electrocatalysts creating affordable In this work, we report three robust, cost-effective, and efficient post-synthetic nanoparticle-embedded metal–organic framework (MOF)-based electrocatalysts, Co3O4@Zn2M2(μ2–OH)2(BTMB)2 (M = Zn (1), Co (2), and Ni (3)), for overall water splitting. The pristine frameworks, Zn2M2(μ2–OH)2(BTMB)2, were transformed from relatively low-conducting materials into conductive analogues through post-synthetic encapsulation of approximately 2.5–3.1 wt % Co3O4 nanoparticles via a sonochemical approach. Successful nanoparticle incorporation and preservation of framework integrity were confirmed by PXRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, EDX, ICP-OES, and TGA analyses. Notably, the Co3O4@MOF composites exhibited enhanced superhydrophobicity, displaying water contact angles of 162.41° (1), 166.42° (2), and 164.47° (3), compared to those of the corresponding pristine MOFs (155.5°, 159.3°, and 160.8°, respectively), which is one of the key steps for enhancing the electrochemical activity of this type of composite. The Co3O4@MOF composites achieved low overpotentials for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of 196, 147, and 169 mV, and for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of 499, 425, and 486 mV, respectively, for 1–3 in 1 M KOH electrolyte. These catalysts also exhibited low Tafel slopes of 101, 94, and 96 mV dec–1 for HER and 123, 118, and 122 mV dec–1 for OER, indicating significantly improved electrocatalytic activity and reaction kinetics. Further, we also carried out an overall water-splitting study to understand their bifunctional behavior under similar electrochemical conditions, delivering a cell potential of 1.78 V at 10 mA cm–2. Compared with the parent MOFs, the nanoparticle-embedded composites demonstrated nearly fourfold enhancement in HER catalytic performance. Among the series, 2 exhibited the best overall electrocatalytic performance, combining the lowest overpotentials, superior kinetics, and remarkable operational stability, maintaining consistent activity for more than 50 h under continuous electrolysis. The integration of Co3O4 nanoparticles into a MOF matrix improves superhydrophobicity and durability, creating affordable, efficient electrocatalysts for overall water splitting and green hydrogen production. 2026-09-28T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 10.1021/acsomega.6c07951.s001 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Superhydrophobic_Porous_Coordination_Polymer-Confined_Co_sub_3_sub_O_sub_4_sub_Nanoparticles_A_Sustainable_Strategy_for_Electrochemical_Water_Splitting/34018146 CC BY-NC 4.0