In Situ Synthesis of Nano CuS-Embedded MOF Hierarchical Structures and Application in Dye Adsorption and Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The development of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)-based composites is a research topic of high importance because these composites have great potential for wide utilization in energy transfer and environment protection. Herein, a series of CuS@NOTT-101 composites have been successfully fabricated through a convenient MOFs-templated in situ vulcanization strategy. Highly dispersed ultrafine CuS particles evenly embedded on the surface or within the pore structure of the resulting composite frameworks, which is beneficial for introducing hierarchical architecture and exclusive active sites. Remarkably, the optimal composite possesses the highest adsorption capacity of 500 mg g–1 for RhB 6G at a low concentration (30 mg/L) among the previously reported MOFs/MOF-based composites and reveals an outstanding performance toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with a small Tafel slope of 78 mV dec–1 as well as good cycling stability over 100 h. Given the established structural and compositional designability of MOFs, these results herald the appearance of multifunctional composites whose location of active sites and hierarchical structure are precisely controlled, at the microscale level.