https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04423-1
Regular Article
NiO and magnetic CuFe2O4-based composite electrocatalyst for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction
1
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, 11671, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Physics, College of Science, Jazan University, 45142, Jazan, Saudi Arabia
3
Department of Physics, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, 21944, Taif, Saudi Arabia
4
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Taif University, P.O.Box 11099, Al-Hawiah, Taif City, Saudi Arabia
5
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Jazan University, 45142, Jazan, Saudi Arabia
6
Department of Physics, Central University of Punjab, 151401, Bathinda, India
b
aligshariq@gmail.com
h
mi1697118@gmail.com
Received:
22
June
2023
Accepted:
30
August
2023
Published online:
13
September
2023
The biggest concerns confronting the modern world are the depletion of nonrenewable energy sources and rising global temperatures. The use of O2 as an alternative energy source offers a potential answer to these problems. Low-cost electrocatalysts are growing approach for electrocatalytic water splitting, such as oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Oxygen evolution reactions are tremendously well-catalyzed by inexpensive transition metal oxide-based nanostructures. Here, we present a new composite NiO/CuFe2O4 nanostructure and further investigate its potential for electrocatalytic OER applications. Microscopic and spectroscopic methods such as FE-SEM, XRD, XPS, and FTIR were utilized to explore the morphology and structural characteristics of the electrocatalyst. The composite NiO/CuFe2O4 catalyst demonstrates excellent electrochemical OER accomplishment with the overpotential of 297 mV for an alkaline medium to acquire the current density of 10 mA/cm2 and a low Tafel slope of 63 mV/dec−1 to confirm the faster reaction of the composite catalyst. The synergism between the metal ions Ni, Cu, and Fe makes the composite catalyst more efficient in its catalytic activity so; the as-prepared structure demonstrates higher electrocatalytic OER execution with cyclic stability and durability than its pristine constituents. The results show that the NiO/CuFe2O4 composite has the potential to act as an electrocatalyst for the splitting of water.
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