Phytochemical-assisted green synthesis of CuFeOx nano-rose electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media

D K Sarkar; V Selvanathan; M Mottakin; A K Mahmud Hasan; Md Ariful Islam; Hamad Almohamadi; Nabeel H Alharthi; Md Akhtaruzzaman

doi:10.1039/d3ra02512h

Phytochemical-assisted green synthesis of CuFeO_x nano-rose electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline media

RSC Adv. 2023 Jun 23;13(28):19130-19139. doi: 10.1039/d3ra02512h. eCollection 2023 Jun 22.

Authors

D K Sarkar^{1

2}, V Selvanathan³, M Mottakin^{1

4}, A K Mahmud Hasan¹, Md Ariful Islam¹, Hamad Almohamadi⁵, Nabeel H Alharthi^{6

7}, Md Akhtaruzzaman^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Bangi Selangor Darul Ehsan 43600 Malaysia akhtar@ukm.edu.my vidhya@ukm.edu.my.
² Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Rajshahi University Rajshahi-6205 Bangladesh.
³ Institute of Sustainable Energy, Universiti Tenaga Nasional (The Energy University) Jalan Ikram-Uniten Kajang 43000 Selangor Malaysia.
⁴ Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University Gopalganj-8100 Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University of Madinah Madinah Saudi Arabia hha@iu.edu.sa.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Islamic University of Madinah Madinah Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University Riyadh 11421 Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8573 Japan.

Abstract

This study represents a green synthesis method for fabricating an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrode by depositing two-dimensional CuFeO_x on nickel foam (NF). Two-dimensional CuFeO_x was deposited on NF using in situ hydrothermal synthesis in the presence of Aloe vera extract. This phytochemical-assisted synthesis of CuFeO_x resulted in a unique nano-rose-like morphology (petal diameter 30-70 nm), which significantly improved the electrochemical surface area of the electrode. The synthesized electrode was analyzed for its OER electrocatalytic activity and it was observed that using 75% Aloe vera extract in the phytochemical-assisted synthesis of CuFeO_x resulted in improved OER electrocatalytic performance by attaining an overpotential of 310 mV for 50 mA cm^-2 and 410 mV for 100 mA cm^-2. The electrode also sustained robust stability throughout the 50 h of chronopotentiometry studies under alkaline electrolyte conditions, demonstrating its potential as an efficient OER electrode material. This study highlights the promising use of Aloe vera extract as a green and cost-effective way to synthesize efficient OER electrode materials.