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Research Article

Low-cost high entropy alloy (HEA) for high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction (OER)

Lalita Sharma1,§, Nirmal Kumar Katiyar2,3,§, Arko Parui4,§, Rakesh Das5, Ritesh Kumar4, Chandra Sekhar Tiwary5(), Abhisek K. Singh4(), Aditi Halder1(), Krishanu Biswas2()
School of Basic Sciences, Advanced Materials Research Centre (AMRC), Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (H.P), Kamand, Mandi 175005, India
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India
School of Engineering, London South Bank University, London, SE10 AA, UK
Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 382355, India

§ Lalita Sharma, Nirmal Kumar Katiyar, and Arko Parui contributed equally to this work.

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Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by energy-efficient, nanoengineered,activated high entropy alloy (Co-Fe-Ga-Ni-Zn) catalyst.

Abstract

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the key step involved both in water splitting devices and rechargeable metal-air batteries, and hence, there is an urgent need for a stable and low-cost material for efficient OER. In the present investigation, Co-Fe-Ga-Ni-Zn (CFGNZ) high entropy alloy (HEA) has been utilized as a low-cost electrocatalyst for OER. Herein, after cyclic voltammetry activation, CFGNZ-nanoparticles (NPs) are covered with oxidized surface and form high entropy (oxy) hydroxides (HEOs), exhibiting a low overpotential of 370 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2 with a small Tafel slope of 71 mV/dec. CFGNZ alloy has higher electrochemical stability in comparison to state-of-the art RuO2 electrocatalyst as no degradation has been observed up to 10 h of chronoamperometry. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies after 10 h of long-term chronoamperometry test showed no change in the crystal structure, which confirmed the high stability of CFGNZ. The density functional theory (DFT) based calculations show that the closeness of d(p)-band centers to the Fermi level (EF) plays a major role in determining active sites.This work highlights the tremendous potential of CFGNZ HEA for OER, which is the primary reaction involved in water splitting.

Keywords

high entropy alloycyclic voltammetry activationoxygen evolution reactionelectrocatalystnanocrystalline catalyst

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 6,
June 2022
Pages 4799-4806
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-3802-4
Cite this article:
Sharma L, Kumar Katiyar N, Parui A, et al. Low-cost high entropy alloy (HEA) for high-efficiency oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Nano Research, 2022, 15(6): 4799-4806. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3802-4
Topics:
Oxygen evolution reaction
Part of a topical collection:
High Entropy Nanomaterials
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