Rational development of PPy/CuWO4 nanostructure as competent electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution, and hydrogen evolution reactions

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy 2024-03, Vol.59, p.1326-1334
• Main Authors: Alotaibi, Nouf H., Manzoor, Sumaira, Saleem, Shahroz, Mohammad, Saikh, Khalil, Muhammad, Yalçin, Şenay, Abid, Abdul Ghafoor, Allakhverdiev, Suleyman I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alkaline media; CuWO4-3/PPy; Effect of temperature; HER; OER
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.02.125

Hydrogen has recently attracted a lot of attention as a clean as well as sustainable energy source. However, the vast bulk of industrial hydrogen is produced by converting natural gas into hydrogen. One of the primary goals of large-scale electrolysis is to find efficient, cost-effective, stable, and many other catalysts capable of producing hydrogen from water with minimal electrical bias. Using readily available electrocatalysts on Earth to facilitate the oxidation of water is one way to get closer to an effective method of splitting water to produce hydrogen. Here in the present work, CuWO4 was coated on the conducting polypyrrole (PPy) polymer via hydrothermal techniques to boost its catalytic performance. The fabricated PPy/CuWO4 composite is then utilized for water splitting to yield hydrogen in addition to oxygen. The PPy is able to raise the CuWO4 Fermi levels are separated, as a result, the PPy/CuWO4 produced a large number of strong and readily accessible charges, which led to the splitting of water into hydrogen, and demonstrated that at a potential of 1.470 V vs. RHE, the current density intended for CuWO4-3/PPY reached 10 mAcm−2, attaining an overpotential of 197 mV, with a Tafel plot slope of about 34.4 mVdec−1, and also with a charge transfer resistance of 2.3Ω for OER. Furthermore, the HER activity also attained lower overpotential (250 mV), with a Tafel slope of 50 mV dec−1 in order to reach a 10 mAcm−2 current density. In addition, the CuWO4 is completely encased by the PPy, facilitating charge transfer, allowing the particles to travel rapidly to the polymer's surface. Hence, this study demonstrates that the highly effective CuWO4-3/PPy nanocomposite is responsible for future energy-related applications. [Display omitted] •The PPy/CuWO4 is fabricated via hydrothermal technique for hydrogen production.•The fabricated PPy/CuWO4 composite demonstrates a potential of 1.470 V vs. RHE.•The CuWO4-3/PPY attains tafel slope of 34.4 mVdec−1 at 10 mAcm−2.•It also attained lower overpotential 250 mV at 10 mAcm−2 for HER.•The CuWO4-3/PPy nanocomposite shows many future energy related applications.