The depleting fossil fuels can be replaced by sustainable renewable sources of energy (such as solar, wind, and tidal) to meet the increasing global energy demand. Storage of sustainable energy in the form of green fuels (such as hydrogen) can also provide the advantage of a mobile source, carbon-free fuel, as well as continuous generation of energy. Electrochemical water splitting consisting of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode is the most promising technique to generate green hydrogen fuel, where OER remains the bottleneck for the electrocatalytic water splitting reaction due to the involvement of four-step complex and sluggish kinetics. The development of a low-cost and highly abundant transition metal-based electrocatalyst for OER with lower overpotential and high stability is desired. In this study, electrodes were fabricated by electrodeposition of transition metals (Ni and Fe) over a carbon cloth. The overpotential required to achieve 10 mA/cm2 current density for OER in an alkaline medium (1.0 M KOH) by electrodeposited nickel and iron were 296 mV and 465 mV. Further, bimetallic electrodes were fabricated with different ratios of metal (1:3, 1:1, and 3:1) to improve the electrocatalytic activity. The synergy of nickel with iron demonstrated the lowest overpotential requirements of 230 mV to achieve 10 mA/cm2 current density. A Lower Tafel slope of 41 mV/dec demonstrates the excellent inherent kinetics of the electrode. Lower charge transfer resistance (Rct) of 1.4 Ω demonstrates the ease of electron transfer at the electrode surface during OER. The outcomes suggest that simple, cost-effective, binder-free one-step electrodeposited electrocatalysts can show excellent OER and advantages over conventional synthesis procedures.

One-step electrodeposition of transition metals (Ni and Fe) for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction

Where thousands of chemistry professionals meet to share ideas and advance scientific and technical knowledge. Spring 2023 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch at the end of March.

ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.