Scalable Synthesis of Sm2O3/Fe2O3 Hierarchical Oxygen Vacancy-Based Gyroid-Inspired Morphology: With Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for Oxygen Evolution Performance

• Published in: Energy & fuels 2021-11, Vol.35 (21), p.17820-17832
• Main Authors: Abid, Abdul Ghafoor, Manzoor, Sumaira, Usman, Muhammad, Munawar, Tauseef, Nisa, Mehar Un, Iqbal, Faisal, Ashiq, Muhammad Naeem, Najam-ul-Haq, Muhammad, Shah, Afzal, Imran, Muhammad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis and Kinetics
• ISSN: 0887-0624; 1520-5029
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.1c01790

Non-platinum-based critically and rationally fabricated electrocatalysts show promising efficiency in electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) due to their reliability and cost-effectiveness. Herein, a hydrothermally designed oxygen-defective Sm2O3/Fe2O3 composite with gyroid morphology provides superior active sites with high porosity and mass charge transport in a catalytic system. All of the fabricated materials were characterized via different analytical techniques. The Sm2O3/Fe2O3 hierarchical composite displays an outstanding lower overpotential (272 mV) to attain a current density of 10 mA/cm2 and a lower Tafel slope (75 mV/dec) compared to the individual materials Sm2O3 and Fe2O3 in alkaline media. The remarkable electrocatalytic intrinsic OER performance of oxygen-defective Sm2O3/Fe2O3 is ascribed to the strong synergistic effect among both materials due to their unique gyroid structure, and such architecture exhibits extraordinary electrical properties due to its porous structure. Hierarchical Sm2O3/Fe2O3 exhibits marvelous activity and stability at an applied potential (0.7 V) with a slight decrease in current density. All of the extraordinary results acquired from electrochemical activity make Sm2O3/Fe2O3 a promising electrocatalyst for electrochemical energy generation.