Ternary ZnO/Co3O4/CuO heterostructure nanocomposites derived from trimetallic metal-organic frameworks for efficient electrocatalytic water oxidation

Enhancing the electrocatalytic performance of transition-metal oxide catalysts by optimizing the active center at the multi-component heterointerface is a daunting task. Herein, the three-component ZnO/Co3O4/CuO heterostructure composite catalyst was effectively produced through a room-temperature precipitation reaction, followed by calcination in air. The ZnO/Co3O4/CuO ternary heterostructure catalyst showed superior oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, characterized by a low overpotential (312 mV at 10 mA cm-2) and Tafel slope (83.5 mV dec-1) compared to the ZnO, Co3O4, ZnO/CuO, ZnO/Co3O4, and Co3O4/CuO catalysts. The research shows that the property of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution is greatly enhanced due to the combined impact of each component.