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

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 27; no. 19; p. 6396
• Main Authors: Ruqia, Asghar, Muhammad Adeel, Ibadat, Sana, Abbas, Saghir, Nisar, Talha, Wagner, Veit, Zubair, Muhammad, Ullah, Irfan, Ali, Saqib, Haider, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 27.09.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Alternative energy; binder-free catalysts; Carbon; Diffraction; electrocatalysis; Electrodes; Energy conversion; Force and energy; Green technology; Hydrogen; Investigations; Iron compounds; Oxidation; Oxidation-reduction reaction; oxygen evolution reaction; prussian blue analogues; Silicon wafers; Sodium; Software; Solvents; Surface active agents; Surfactants; water oxidation; X-ray spectroscopy; X-rays
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules27196396

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) Mx[Fe(CN)5CH3C6H4NH2]∙yC19H34NBr 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−2 with the Tafel slope value of 103 mV·dec−1 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.