| Summary: | Currently, great importance has been assigned to designing cutting-edge materials for oxygen and hydrogen generation from hybrid water electrolysis as an ideal fuel alternative in energy-conversion devices. This work reports on the electrochemical organic molecule oxidation in alkaline media, intending to promote water electrolysis at early onset potential with more current densities using Sn-Cu oxidized heterostructures. The electrocatalysts were easily and rapidly synthesized by the microwave-heated synthesis process in the presence of a small quantity of ethylene glycol. The X-ray diffraction and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy analyses confirm the presence of CuO and SnO<sub>2</sub> phases, which significantly improves the electrochemical activity of the composite toward the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) in alkaline media in the presence of 1.0 mol L<sup>−1</sup> ethanol, yielding 8.0 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> at 1.6 V. The charge transfer resistance (R<sub>ct</sub>) was determined using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and the result shows that the R<sub>ct</sub> of SnO<sub>2</sub>/CuO drastically decreased. The findings in this work highlight that the designed oxidized heterostructures with non-noble metals are promising candidates for energy conversion devices and sensors. Furthermore, this work confirms the advantages of using an assisted microwave heating process to develop an advanced SnO<sub>2</sub>/CuO composite with the potential to be used in electro-oxidation processes.
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