Synthesis and characterization of Ag2ZnTiS4 nanostructures prepared by a hot-injection method towards low-cost electrocatalytic oxygen evolution

Abstract

Due to their potential use in generating sustainable energy via electrocatalysis, silver-based quaternary chalcogenide compounds have garnered superior interest. The wide range of properties of the silver-based quaternary chalcogenide compounds are due to their optimized band gaps. For designing a highly efficient solar cell, the band gap of the material that maximizes the absorption of incident light is highly desirable. The band gap of Ag₂ZnTiS₄ nanoparticles is about 1.46 eV. This compound is earth-abundant, cheap, and non-carcinogenic. Ag₂ZnTiS₄ (abbreviated as SZTiS) electrodes were synthesized using a hot injection technique for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 1 M KOH. Electrocatalytic SZTiS electrode data were recorded using an electrochemical workstation. It has been shown that SZTiS/NF₃₀₀ in 1 M KOH solution has a low overpotential of 275 mV versus the RHE at 10 mA cm⁻² and a low Tafel slope of 43 mV dec⁻¹. In addition, 20 hours of stability testing of the SZTiS/NF₃₀₀ electrode shows that this combination is a strong contender for use in O₂ evolution from water splitting.