Oxygen-Bridged V–Co Atomic Pair in MOF-Derived Hierarchical Amorphous Leaf Networks Co-boost Alkaline Hydrogen Electrochemistry

Water electrolysis as an environmentally friendly technology for green hydrogen production has attracted extensive research interest. However, the high economic investment of traditional noble metal-based catalysts has long been the bottleneck of large-scale application of water electrolyzer. Herein, we suggest an effective strategy to greatly strengthen alkaline HER activity and stability of a metal–organic framework (MOF)-derived Co 2 P catalyst by introducing high-valence V, achieving directional and accelerated adsorption and dissociation of water molecules on oxygen-bridged V–Co (V–O–Co) collaborative coordination with strong electron coupling. Indeed, both experiments and theoretical calculations reveal that the active V–O–Co motifs promote the charge transfer from surrounding electron-enriched cobalt atoms to vanadium atoms via a bridging oxygen bond. Consequently, the resulting optimal catalyst exhibits the best activity with a low overpotential of 83 mV to reach 10 mA cm –2 and improved durability. Our work suggests useful synthetic finesse to promote the performance of low-cost HER electrocatalysts.