Defect Induced Porous NiO Nanoparticles for Electrochemical Water Oxidation

Surendran, Devika (2017) Defect Induced Porous NiO Nanoparticles for Electrochemical Water Oxidation. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

PDF (MS dissertation of Devika Surendran (12MS018)) BS-MS_Thesis_12MS018.pdf - Submitted Version Restricted to Repository staff only Download (1MB)

Abstract

Increasing global demand of clean energy is pointing to the production of hydrogen in a nature friendly manner as hydrogen is one of the promisable energy sources in future. Electrolysis is process in which electricity splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Water splitting includes both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). As OER is a sluggish process there is a need of development of robust catalysts for this reaction. IrOx and RuOx are considered to be the efficient catalysts for OER. Due to its scarcity and high cost, research is focussed on transition metal oxides which are abundant and less expensive. Here, in this work defects were introduced in the microporous nickel oxide nanoparticles and their role in water oxidation was studied. Here we have synthesized nanoporous nickel oxide using NiAl₂O₄ spinel as a template. Defects are created by quenching at crystallization temperature (600⁰C) by different media like air and liquid nitrogen. The micropores were generated by etching of Al₂O₃ from NiAl₂O₄.It demonstrates that not only the specific surface area and pore volume but also the micropore volume has an important role in electrocatalytic activity by governing the diffusion of reactant molecules. This work will provide an ideal model to investigate the relationship between micropore volume, defect concentration and electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reaction.

Actions (login required)

View Item