Microwave-Assisted Cobalt Oxide Nucleation on a Methyl Imidazole Framework for Efficient Overall Water Splitting Reaction

Hydrogen (H2) generation via water electrolysis is a promising method to reach sustainable goals toward a zero-carbon footprint. To address this challenge, developing a cost-effective, highly active, earth-abundant electrocatalyst is needed. In this study, microwave-assisted cobalt-imidazole framework-decorated cobalt oxide (CO-ZIFs) were synthesized, and the optimized CO-ZIF-50 was found to be amorphous in nature with a cube-shaped morphology and rough surface. The CO-ZIF-50 revealed impressive bifunctional electrocatalytic activity, requiring only 328 and 132 mV overpotentials for OER and HER, respectively, to reach a current density of 25 mA cm–2 in 1 M KOH. Furthermore, CO-ZIF-50 exhibits excellent operational stability, maintaining its catalytic performance for 144 h during OER and 85 h during HER. In addition, for an alkaline electrolyzer, CO-ZIF-50 achieved a cell potential of 1.605 V at 10 mA cm–2 and maintained stable performance for 130 h. Overall, this study clearly demonstrates that the synthesized electrocatalyst has the potential for practical water-splitting applications, thereby accelerating the development of renewable hydrogen production technology.