Electrodeposition synthesis of cobalt-selenide for water splitting electrocatalyst application
The significant challenge for overall water splitting is the development of an active electrocatalyst, that can exhibit highly stable and cost-effective, for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Transition chalcogenides TMCs were considered as the most promising material for electrocatalyst because of its adsorption property. Herein, the shaggy porous cobalt-selenide (Co-Se), one of TMCs, was directly grown on the synthesized carbon-based porous membrane as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting via electrodeposition method. The stability and active surface area were improved by using in-house fabricated carbon-based porous membrane (CPM) as a support material. A unique interconnected macropores CPM was prepared via cryogelation, freeze-drying, and subsequent carbonization. After studied optimum condition for electrodeposition method. The performances of HER and OER were performed in acidic (0.5 M H2SO4) and alkaline (1.0 M KOH) aqueous electrolytes, respectively. Under the optimum conditions, Co-Se exhibit stable and excellent activity for both HER and OER catalysis which have 119 mV and 301 mV for overpotential and Tafel slope of 80.1 mV/dec and 117 mV/dec, respectively. Lastly, overall water splitting the reaction requires the potentials only 2.12 V. Excellent stability with no current density decay was observed over a 23 h testing period. The low-cost and simplicity of membrane fabrication and catalyst synthesis could be extended to other metal dichalcogenides to develop new types of efficient water splitting electrocatalysts.