investigation of experimental condition effects on the behavior of synthesized hkust-1 using electrochemical method

Metal-organic frameworks (mofs) are unlimited 1-, 2- or 3-dimensional networks formed by metal centers connected to organic ligands. the related studies show that mofs are a new type of nano-porous materials suitable for gas storage and separation. this category of porous compounds has attracted much attention during the last ten years. mofs have wide variety of applications, including adsorption gas, gas storage and separation, sensors, catalysts, electrocatalysts, electronics, semiconductors, health, food industry, drug delivery, detergents, and others. in recent years, there has been an ever-increasing interest in the investigation of electrochemical applications in supercapacitors, batteries and fuel cells, the hydrogen evolution reaction (her), the oxygen evolution reaction (oer), oxygen reduction reaction (orr), electrochemical decomposition of toxic and highly oxidizing compounds, electrochemical sensors and, so on. mofs’ synthesis is done by various method such as electrochemical techniques, one of the best and most practical methods. in electrochemical synthesis, the metal ion is supplied through the oxidation of the electrode. the benefits of this method include shorter synthesis time, milder conditions, easy synthesis of the mof nanoparticles and morphology tuning. copper benzene tricarboxylate was reported in 1999 for the first time and named hkust-1. since then, it has become one of the most studied mofs. this mof (is) frequently supplied by copper salt (normally nitrate) and benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid (btc) in hydrothermal conditions. additionally, it was the first mof that (was) synthesized electrochemically. the formation rate of hkust-1 is relatively rapid and takes place in the double layer around the electrode, where thin films of mof are formed. one of hkust-1’s applications is as an electrocatalyst at hydrogen evolution reduction. in this research, hkust-1 was synthesized by electrosynthesis method. the experiments were done at the three-electrode cell, consisting of copper foam, graphite and sce as working, counter and reference electrode, respectively, in a constant potential of -0.1v. precursors were dissolved in the mixture of ethanol and water. the heating of the process was done at 50°c. the synthesis was performed anodically at 50°c. the optical microscope pictures show the formation of hkust-1 on the copper foam. the effects of btc concentration and synthesis time on the synthesized hkust-1 were tested. electrosynthesis was done with different concentrations of 1.2, 1.6, and 2gr, and duration times of 10, 25, and 40 min. the synthesized mofs in this study were evaluated in the hydrogen reduction process. the experiment results show that the hkust-1 provided in 25 min and with 1.6 concentration has the best effect on the hydrogen reduction peak.