Synergistic effect of reduced graphene oxide layers wrapped in polyaniline sheets to porous blades for boosted oxygen evolution reaction

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting is a unique approach for producing renewable energy in hydrogen fuel, though it is limited due to the sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER). To enhance the efficacy of hydrogen production, it is a need to regulate oxygen evolution reaction. An efficient strategy is to construct a competent electrocatalyst with an immense open, active site, highly stable, porous structure, and large surface area. This study employs an inexpensive, facile, and eco-friendly single-step route to fabricate reduced graphene oxide (rGO) layers wrapped in polyaniline (PANI) sheets to achieve the controlled blades morphology. All the synthesized materials are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), BET to examine their structural, morphological, and textural properties. Interestingly, when all the synthesized materials are employed for electrochemical measurements, rGO/PANI nanocomposite exhibits exceptional performance with a low overpotential of 221 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2, lower Tafel slope of 37 mV/dec, and also high stability of 20 h. Overall, this work could lead up to the fabrication of innovative blade structured nanocomposite as an efficient electrocatalyst and make it applicable for multiple applications.