A new preparation of a bifunctional crystalline heterogeneous copper electrocatalyst by electrodeposition using a Robson-type macrocyclic dinuclear copper complex for efficient hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water

作者：Majumder Samit; Haleem Ashraf Abdel; Nagaraju Perumandla; Naruta Yoshinori

来源：Dalton Transactions, 2017, 46(28): 9131-9139.

DOI：10.1039/c7dt01594a

The development of low-cost, stable bifunctional electrocatalysts, which operate in the same electrolyte with a low overpotential for water splitting, including the oxygen evolution reaction and the hydrogen evolution reaction, remains an attractive prospect and a great challenge. In this study, a water soluble Robson-type macrocyclic dicopper(II) complex has been used for the first time as a catalyst precursor for the generation of a copper-based bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst film, which can be used for both HER and OER at a near neutral pH. In sodium borate buffer at pH 9.20, this complex decomposed to give a Cu(OH)(2)/Cu2O-based thin film on FTO that catalyzes both hydrogen production and water oxidation. The morphology, nature and composition of the thin film were fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopies. The catalyst film showed high stability during the course of electrolysis in either the cathodic or the anodic direction for more than 4 h. Faradaic efficiencies of similar to 92% for HER and similar to 96% for OER were achieved. The switch between the two half-reactions of catalytic water splitting was fully reversible in nature.

• 出版日期2017-7-28