Issue 29, 2024

Ferroelectric modulation of CuCo2O4 nanorods for controllable alkaline water electrolysis

Abstract

As a technology for emerging environmental applications, water electrolysis is a significant approach for producing clean hydrogen energy. In this work, we used an efficacious piezoelectric method to significantly improve the catalytic water splitting activity without affecting the morphology as well as the components by altering the bulk charge separation state inside the material. The obtained CuCo2O4 nanorods were treated under a corona polarization apparatus, which significantly enhanced ferroelectricity relative to that before the polarization increasing the physical charge separation and piezoelectric potential energy, enhancing the green hydrogen production. The polarized CuCo2O4 nanorods exhibit excellent water electrolysis performance under alkaline conditions, with hydrogen evolution overpotential of 78.7 mV and oxygen evolution overpotential of 299 mV at 10 mA cm−2, which is much better than that of unpolarized CuCo2O4 nanorods. Moreover, the Tafel slopes of polarized CuCo2O4 nanorods are 86.9 mV dec−1 in the HER process and 73.1 mV dec−1 in the OER process, which are much lower than commercial catalysts of Pt/C (88.0 mV dec−1 for HER) or RuO2 (78.5 mV dec−1 for OER), proving faster kinetic on polarized CuCo2O4 nanorods due to their higher electroconductibility and intrinsic activity. In particular, polarized CuCo2O4 nanorods are identified as promising catalysts for water electrolysis with robust stability, offering outstanding catalytic performance and excellent energy efficiency.

Graphical abstract: Ferroelectric modulation of CuCo2O4 nanorods for controllable alkaline water electrolysis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 মার্চ 2024
Accepted
07 জুন 2024
First published
12 জুলাই 2024

Nanoscale, 2024,16, 14057-14065

Ferroelectric modulation of CuCo2O4 nanorods for controllable alkaline water electrolysis

R. Zhang, J. Wang, Q. Sun, F. Cao, G. Xu, Y. Miao, C. Zhang, Z. Wu and L. Wang, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 14057 DOI: 10.1039/D4NR01320D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements