Free-standing carbon nanotubes as non-metal electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction in water splitting
By Ali, Abid; Aky
Published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
2018
Abstract
Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has significant impact on the overall electrochemical water splitting. We introduce, for the first time, a facile approach towards the fabrication of versatile electrode composed of free-standing multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as electrocatalyst for the water splitting reaction. Directly extracted {MWCNTs} as sheets from vertically grown arrays transferred over the glass substrate, are used without any post treatment as a working electrode for OER. Onset potential of 1.60 V was achieved for {MWCNTs} which is significantly reduced as compared to platinum based metal electrode (1.72 V) with excellent current density. No surface modification, metal-free nature, flexibility and low cost with excellent catalytic activity proved this material as a promising candidate for the replacement of metal based electrodes in electrochemical water splitting.