A sandwich-type catalytic composite reassembled with a birnessite layer and metalloporphyrin as a water oxidation catalyst

High purity birnessite was synthesized and exfoliated into a negatively charged monolayer structure. A positively charged 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis (4-aminophenyl) manganese porphyrin (MnTAPP) was synthesized. Driven by the electrostatic force and the coordination effect of the amino nitrogen on the manganese ion in birnessite, the single-layer birnessite was reassembled with MnTAPP, forming a new sandwich-type catalytic composite MnTAPP@bir. The structure and chemical properties of the composite were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Brunauer–Emmett analysis (BET). Electrocatalytic studies showed that the MnTAPP@bir exhibited an overpotential for water oxidation of 450 mV (at 10 mA cm(−2)) and a Tafel slope of 121.5 mV dec(−1) compared to birnessite with 700 mV (at 10 mA cm(−2)) and 230 mV dec(−1). Impedance spectroscopy results suggested that the charge transfer resistivity of MnTAPP@bir was significantly lower than that of birnessite, suggesting that MnTAPP in the interlayer increased the conductivity of birnessite. Through a chronoamperometry test, the new material also showed excellent stability within 4000 s.