Functional Defective Metal-Organic Coordinated Network of Mesostructured Nanoframes for Enhanced Electrocatalysis

Although defects are traditionally perceived as undesired feature, the prevalence of tenacious low-coordinated defects can instead give rise to desirable functionalities. Here, a spontaneous etching of mesostructured crystal, cyanide-bridged cobalt-iron (CN-CoFe) organometallic hybrid into atomically crafted open framework that is populated with erosion-tolerant high surface energy defects is presented. Unprecedently, the distinct mechanistic etching pathway dictated by the mesostructured assembly, bulk defects, and strong intercoordinated cyanide-bridged hybrid mediates not only formation of excess low-coordinated defects but also more importantly stabilizes them against prevailing dissolution and migration issues. Clearly, the heteropolynuclear cyanide bonded inorganic mesostructured clusters sanction the restructuring of a new breed of stable organometallic polymorph with 3D accessible structure enclosed by electrochemical active atomic stepped edges and high index facets. The exceptional electrocatalysis performance supports the assertion that defective mesostructured polymorph offers a new material paradigm to synthetically tailor the elementary building block constituents toward functional materials.