Fabrication and Electrocatalytic Applications of CuO@Fe203 N anoparticles

Abstract

The current research work demonstrates the synthesis of pure metal oxide (Fe203) and metal oxide hybrid (xCuO@Fe203; x = 5,7,10,12 and 15) as the potential catalysts for water electrocatalysis. The desired catalysts were synthesized by using precipitation method and impregnation method. The properties of prepared electrocatalysts were investigated by using different techniques such as XRD, FTIR, SEMlEDX, cyclic voltarnmetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ElS). The XRD pattern shows the rhombohedral crystal structure and FTlR showed the metal oxygen bond formation below 800 cm I . The catalytic activity of synthesized materials was evaluated by performing cyclic voltammetry in an alkaline media using 1 M KOH and methanol as supporting electrolyte. The OER performance of all the electrocatalysts in terms of current density (J), onset potential (Eonset), overpotential (11), Tafel slopes (b), double layer capacitance (Cdl), charge transfer resistance (Ret) was evaluated. CuFe-l0 shows the better catalytic behaviour with the current density of 11.45 rnA cm-2, electrochemical active surface area of 0.74 cm2 and double layer capacitance 29.89 ~F in 1 M KOH among all the employed catalysts. Methanol used as facilitating agent which enhanced the current density for OER at CuFe-lO from 11.45 to 38.88 rnA cm-2 and increased the electrochemical active surface area and double layer capacitance from 0.74 to 0.87 cm2 and 29.89 to 34.88 ~F, respectively. From the electrochemical response, it can be proposed that all the electro catalysts can be used for electrochemical water oxidation, but CuFe-lO shows the highest activity among all.