From Toxic Pollutant to Catalyst: One-Pot Synthesis of Fe3O4-Ni-DBP/NF for Efficient Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a ubiquitous plasticizer pollutant, poses severe risks to environmental and human health, yet its high chemical stability makes valorization highly challenging. Herein, we report a one-pot, mild, and green strategy that directly upcycles DBP as an organic ligand to construct a ferroferric oxide functional Ni-based MOF framework nanocomposite (Fe3O4-Ni-MOF(DBP)) on nickel foam (NF), enabling the simultaneous detoxification of DBP and fabrication of a high-performance electrocatalyst. The in-situ integration of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with the Ni-MOF(DBP) endows the hybrid catalyst with accelerated charge-transfer kinetics, enhanced electrical conductivity, and abundant accessible active sites, leading to remarkable bifunctional activity for overall water splitting. In an alkaline electrolyte, Fe3O4-Ni-MOF(DBP)/NF exhibits outstanding bifunctional electrocatalytic performance, delivering low overpotentials of 233 mV for the OER and 42 mV for the HER at 10 mA cm -2 , along with excellent durability over continuous operation exceeding 40 h. In-situ Raman analysis reveals that the superior catalytic performance of Fe3O4-Ni-MOF(DBP)/NF is attributed to the dynamic reconstruction of surface metal sites into active (oxy)hydroxide intermediates. This work presents an innovative strategy for the valorization of toxic plastic pollutants, thus advancing the cross integration of environmental remediation and clean energy technologies.