Electrocatalytic study of NiO-MOF with activated carbon composites for methanol oxidation reaction

Saadia Hanif; Naseem Iqbal; Tayyaba Noor; Neelam Zaman; K Vignarooban

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-96794-7

Electrocatalytic study of NiO-MOF with activated carbon composites for methanol oxidation reaction

Sci Rep. 2021 Aug 25;11(1):17192. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-96794-7.

Authors

Saadia Hanif¹, Naseem Iqbal², Tayyaba Noor³, Neelam Zaman¹, K Vignarooban⁴

Affiliations

¹ USPCAS-E, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
² USPCAS-E, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan. naseem@uspcase.nust.edu.pk.
³ SCME, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Jaffna, Jaffna, 40000, Sri Lanka.

Abstract

In this work, the methanol oxidation reaction is investigated on Ni based metal organic frameworks (MOF) and its composites with biomass derived activated carbon. NiO-MOF and composites with activated carbon were synthesized using hydrothermal method. SEM, EDX, and XRD, FTIR, TGA techniques were used for characterization of composites. The electrochemical activity of catalysts for oxidation of methanol was tested using cyclic voltammetry (CV) in 1 M KOH and 3 M CH₃OH on glassy carbon electrode in three electrode setup. The electrochemical performance shows the effect of activated carbon concentration on methanol oxidation. The electro-oxidation catalyzed by NiO-MOF with activated carbon (40 mg) composite exhibits a peak current density of 182.72 mA/cm² at 0.89 V potential with a scan rate of 50 mV/s making it a potential catalyst for electrocatalysis of methanol.