Bifunctional electrochemical OER and HER activity of Ta2O5 nanoparticles over Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract

Hydrogen production via electrocatalytic water splitting offers encouraging innovations for sustainable and clean energy production as an alternative to conventional energy sources. The improvement of extraordinarily dynamic electrocatalysts is of great interest for work on the performance of gas generation, which is firmly blocked due to the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The development of highly efficient base metal catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) is a challenging and promising task. In the present work, a particle over particles of Fe₂O₃ and Ta₂O₅ was successfully produced by hydrothermal treatment. The prepared composite shows promising catalytic performance when used as an electrochemical catalyst for OER and HER in alkaline and acidic electrolytes with low overpotentials of 231 and 201 mV at 10 mV cm⁻², small Tafel slopes of 71 and 135 mV dec⁻¹, respectively, and good stability properties. The calculated electrochemical surface area (ECSA) for composites is five times higher than that of the original oxides. The result of the OER is significantly better than that of commercial IrO₂ catalysts and offers a promising direction for the development of water-splitting catalysts.