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Uniform, Assembled 4 nm Mn 3 O 4 Nanoparticles as Efficient Water Oxidation Electrocatalysts at Neutral pH
Author(s) -
Cho Kang Hee,
Seo Hongmin,
Park Sunghak,
Lee Yoon Ho,
Lee Moo Young,
Cho Nam Heon,
Nam Ki Tae
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201910424
Subject(s) - overpotential , oxygen evolution , materials science , oxidizing agent , water splitting , electrochemistry , catalysis , nanoparticle , chemical engineering , transition metal , electrode , substrate (aquarium) , electrocatalyst , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , photocatalysis , chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , oceanography , geology , engineering
Electrochemical water splitting is one of the ways to produce environmentally‐friendly hydrogen energy. Transition‐metal (TM)‐based catalysts have been attracting attention due to their low cost and abundance, but their insufficient activity still remains a challenge. Here, 4 nm Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) are successfully synthesized and their electrochemical behavior is investigated. Using electrokinetic analyses, an identical water oxidizing mechanism is demonstrated between the 4 and 8 nm Mn 3 O 4 NPs. In addition, it is confirmed that the overall increase in the active surface area is strongly correlated with the superb catalytic activity of the 4 nm Mn 3 O 4 NPs. To further enhance the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, Ni foam substrate is introduced to maximize the entire number of the NPs participating in OER. The 4 nm Mn 3 O 4 /Ni foam electrode exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic activity for OER with overpotential of 395 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 under neutral conditions (0.5 m PBS, pH 7).