Proper design of multifunctional electrocatalyst that are abundantly available on earth, cost-effective and possess excellent activity and electrochemical stability towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are required for effective hydrogen generation from water-splitting reaction. In this context, the work herein reports the fabrication of nitrogen-rich porous carbon (NRPC) along with the inclusion of non-noble metal-based catalyst, adopting a simple and scalable methodology. NRPC containing nitrogen and oxygen atoms were synthesized from polybenzoxazine (Pbz) source, and non-noble metal(s) are inserted into the porous carbon surface using hydrothermal process. The structure formation and electrocatalytic activity of neat NRPC and monometallic and bimetallic inclusions (NRPC/Mn, NRPC/Ni and NRPC/NiMn) were analyzed using XRD, Raman, XPS, BET, SEM, TEM and electrochemical measurements. The formation of hierarchical 3D flower-like morphology for NRPC/NiMn was observed in SEM and TEM analyses. Especially, NRPC/NiMn proves to be an efficient electrocatalyst providing an overpotential of 370 mV towards OER and an overpotential of 136 mV towards HER. Moreover, it also shows a lowest Tafel slope of 64 mV dec-1 and exhibits excellent electrochemical stability up to 20 h. The synergistic effect produced by NRPC and bimetallic compounds increases the number of active sites at the electrode/electrolyte interface and thus speeds up the OER process.
Keywords: bimetallic; electrocatalyst; hetero-atom; porous carbon; water splitting.