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High-entropy oxide nanofibers as catalysts to oxygen evolution reaction

  • Ceramics
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Abstract

The need to replace electrodes based on noble metals is a necessity for the popularization of strategic energy technologies. In the catalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), where iridium (Ir) and ruthenium (Ru) are the main references, transition metals have gained prominence for aligning good efficiency and low cost, in addition to the possibility of obtaining them in the most varied forms (oxide, hydroxide, alloys, and composites). In this work, the synthesis of high-entropy oxide (HEO) nanofibers of composition (Co0.2Cu0.2Mg0.2Ni0.2Zn0.2)O obtained by solution blow spinning (SBS) is reported for the first time. It was found that the time of heat treatment has a significant influence on obtaining impurity-free HEO. In practice, a residence time varying between 2 and 5 h at the calcination threshold temperature leads to the formation of CuO as a secondary phase. The obtained nanofibers had an average diameter of 185 nm and are made up of cohesive nanoparticles of different sizes and have a highly rough surface texture. The electrocatalytic performance of the OER was mainly influenced by the presence of the secondary phase, which tends to delay the catalytic activity and increase the electrode impedance. For the purest phase sample treated for 9 h at 900 °C (HEO-9), the electrocatalyst reveals a low overpotential of 310 mV vs. RHE at J = 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 54 mV dec−1. These results are superior to other HEO with different morphologies reported in the literature. Furthermore, it was verified that the surface roughness of these nanofibers contributes to the excellent operational stability of the electrocatalyst. Hence, the advantages of nanofibrous structures over other HEO morphologies were suggested and discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the CAPES/Brazil (finance code 001) and CNPq/Brazil (Grants Nos. 202290/2020-4, 305065/2022-0, 309430/2019-4 and 151879/2022-2). The authors are also grateful for the support of the UFPB through the internal call for research productivity PROPESQ/PRPG/ UFPB No. 04/2021, project no PVF14855-2021. T.A. Simões thanks Projeto Inova Nióbio 2022 (Processo 408905/2022-0), Projeto APQ-Emergentes 2022-29/2022 (Processo APQ-1251-3.03/22), CNPq (Processo 308353/2022-6), and FACEPE. V. D. Silva thank to DEMAT/UFRN for FESEM support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Engineering Postgraduate Program (PPCEM), Materials and Biosystems Laboratory (LAMAB/DEMAT), UFPB, João Pessoa, 58051-900, Brazil

    Vinícius D. Silva, Thayse R. Silva, Thiago A. Simões, Daniel A. Macedo & Eliton S. Medeiros

  2. Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, UFRN, Natal, 59078-970, Brazil

    Rafael A. Raimundo

  3. Engineering Campus, UACSA, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Cabo de Santo Agostinho, 54518-430, Brazil

    Thiago A. Simões

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  1. Vinícius D. Silva
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Contributions

V.D.S.was involved in investigation, formal analysis, conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. R.A.R.contributed to formal analysis, methodology, and data curation. T.R.S.was involved in formal analysis and methodology. T.A.S. was involved in formal analysis, data curation, and writing—review and editing. D.A.M.contributed to funding acquisition, validation, supervision, writing—review and editing. E.S.M.contributed to funding acquisition, validation, supervision, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Daniel A. Macedo or Eliton S. Medeiros.

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Silva, V.D., Raimundo, R.A., Silva, T.R. et al. High-entropy oxide nanofibers as catalysts to oxygen evolution reaction. J Mater Sci 58, 17141–17153 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09067-1

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