Enhanced oxygen evolution reaction on amine functionalized graphene oxide in alkaline medium

Abstract

Development of highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is a critical challenge in the cost-effective generation of clean fuels. Here, a metal-free tyramine functionalized graphene oxide (T-GO) electrocatalyst is proposed to use in alkaline electrolytes for enhanced OER. Moreover, the T-GO and GO nanomaterials are well characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR, XPS and Raman spectroscopy. T-GO exhibits an electrocatalytic OER with a current density of 2 mA cm⁻² at a low onset potential of ∼1.39 V and a small Tafel slope of about 69 mV dec⁻¹ and GO exhibits an onset potential of 1.51 V and Tafel slope of about 92 mV dec⁻¹. Additionally, the current stability and RRDE based diffusion controlled response of the T-GO electrocatalyst are outstanding compared to GO. This study establishes metal free T-GO as an efficient electrocatalyst for the OER and used for cathodic production of hydrogen as a counter reaction in the field of water splitting.