An exceptionally stable octacobalt-cluster-based metal-organic framework for enhanced water oxidation catalysis.

Extensive efforts have been devoted to developing efficient and durable catalysts for water oxidation. Herein, we report a highly stable metal-organic framework that shows high catalytic activity and durability for electrically driven (an overpotential of 430 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in neutral aqueous solution) and photodriven (a turnover frequency of 16 s-1 and 12 000 cycles) water oxidation, representing the best catalyst for water oxidation reported to date. Computational simulation and isotope tracing experiments showed that the µ4-OH group of the {Co8(µ4-OH)6} unit participates in the water oxidation reaction to offer an oxygen vacancy site with near-optimal OH- adsorption energy.