With tunable pore size and rich active metal centers, Metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) have been regarded as the one of the promising materials for catalysis. Prospectively, employing MOFs in electrochemistry would notably broaden the scope of electro-catalysis. However, this application is largely hindered by MOFs' conventionally poor electrical conductivity. Integrating MOFs without compromising their crystalline superiority holds a grand challenge to unveil their pristine electro-catalytic properties. In this work, we introduce an epitaxial growth strategy to accomplish an efficient integration of the insulating MOFs into electrochemistry. Particularly, with graphene-templated growth, the two dimensional (2D) MOF possesses a large lateral size of ~ 23 μm and high aspect ratio up to ~1500 and exhibits a significant electrochemical enhancement, with a charge transfer resistance of ~ 200 ohm and a 30 mA cm-2 current density at only 0.53 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. This new MOF/graphene 2D architecture sheds light on integrating insulating MOFs into electrochemical applications.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.9b05869