Ultrathin nanosheets-assembled CuO flowers for highly efficient electrocatalytic water oxidation

• Published in: Journal of materials science Vol. 53; no. 11; pp. 8141 - 8150
• Main Authors: Zhou, Qianqian, Li, Ting-Ting, Xu, Wei, Zhu, Hong-Lin, Zheng, Yue-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anodes; Anodizing; Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical Routes to Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Copper oxides; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Flowers; Materials Science; Metal foils; Nanosheets; Oxidation; Oxidation-reduction reactions; Oxygen evolution reactions; Polymer Sciences; Sodium hydroxide; Solid Mechanics; Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER); Nanosheets; Water Oxidation Catalyst (WOCs); Low Tafel Slope; High Faradaic Efficiency
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-018-2160-4

Integration of water oxidation catalysts on conductive support without polymer binder is an appealing strategy to improve the catalytic activity for electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction. Herein, the hierarchical CuO dandelion-like materials assembled from numerous ultrathin nanosheets are directly grown on Cu foil to produce a 3D oxygen evolution anode (CuO NSDs/CF). As a result of its integrated configuration and high electrocatalytic active sites, the anode exhibits superior electrocatalytic water oxidation activity in 1.0 M NaOH solution, associated with a small overpotential of 370 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and a low Tafel slope of 41 mV dec −1 . Furthermore, the anode can maintain a relatively stable current density at 1.65 V versus RHE for at least 24 h, and a high Faradaic efficiency of 98% is also achieved.