Binder-Free Fabrication of Prussian Blue Analogues Based Electrocatalyst for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation

Developing a cost-effective, efficient, and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst is of great importance for sustainable energy conversion and storage. In this study, we report a facile one-step fabrication of cationic surfactant-assisted Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) M<sub>x</su...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ruqia, Muhammad Adeel Asghar, Sana Ibadat, Saghir Abbas, Talha Nisar, Veit Wagner, Muhammad Zubair, Irfan Ullah, Saqib Ali, Ali Haider
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-09-01
Series:Molecules
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/19/6396
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Summary:Developing a cost-effective, efficient, and stable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst is of great importance for sustainable energy conversion and storage. In this study, we report a facile one-step fabrication of cationic surfactant-assisted Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) M<sub>x</sub>[Fe(CN)<sub>5</sub>CH<sub>3</sub>C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>4</sub>NH<sub>2</sub>]∙yC<sub>19</sub>H<sub>34</sub>NBr abbreviated as SF[Fe-Tol-M] (where SF = N-tridecyl-3-methylpyridinium bromide and M = Mn, Co and Ni) as efficient heterogeneous OER electrocatalysts. The electrocatalysts have been characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In the presence of cationic surfactant (SF), PBAs-based electrodes showed enhanced redox current, high surface area and robust stability compared to the recently reported PBAs. SF[Fe-Tol-Co] hybrid catalyst shows superior electrochemical OER activity with a much lower over-potential (610 mV) to attain the current density of 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> with the Tafel slope value of 103 mV·dec<sup>−1</sup> than that for SF[Fe-Tol-Ni] and SF[Fe-Tol-Mn]. Moreover, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) unveiled that SF[Fe-Tol-Co] exhibits smaller charge transfer resistance, which results in a faster kinetics towards OER. Furthermore, SF[Fe-Tol-Co] offered excellent stability for continues oxygen production over extended reaction time. This work provides a surface assisted facile electrode fabrication approach for developing binder-free OER electrocatalysts for efficient water oxidation.
ISSN:1420-3049