High-performance electrocatalytic nitrogen oxidation of two-dimensional MOF based on a rod-manganese motifs

The electrocatalytic nitrogen oxidation reaction (NOR) is a sustainable approach that can convert N₂ into NO₃⁻ under mild conditions. However, it still faces challenges including inefficient N₂ absorption/activation and oxygen evolution competition, sluggish kinetics, low Faradaic efficiency, and limited nitrate yields. In this work, a novel two-dimensional (2D) layered MOF Mn-BCPPy (H2BCPPy=3,5-di(4'-carboxyphenyl) pyridine) has been successfully synthesized. The framework is composed of a rod-manganese motifs and possesses abundant active sites including open metal sites (OMSs) and Lewis base sites (LBSs). The Mn-BCPPy is the first MOF catalyst applied in electrocatalytic NOR which exhibited relatively high activity with a NO3- yield of 99.75 μg·h-1·mgcat-1 and a Faraday efficiency (FE) of 32.09%. Furthermore, it can be used as fluorescent sensor to selectively and sensitively detect nitrofuran antibiotics (NFs). Therefore, this work explores the application of MOF materials in the field of the electrocatalytic NOR and reveals that Mn-based MOF hold great potential prospects.