Fabrication of Hybrid Catalyst ZnO Nanorod/α-Fe2O3 Composites for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
1
Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, No.1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan
2
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, No.1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan
3
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Broga Road, Semenyih 43500, Malaysia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Crystals 2020, 10(5), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050356
Received: 26 March 2020
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Revised: 26 April 2020
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Accepted: 28 April 2020
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Published: 30 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials for Energy and Recycling)
This report presents the synthesis of ZnO nanorod/α-Fe2O3 composites by the hydrothermal method with different weight percentages of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The as-synthesized nanorod composites were characterized by different techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). From our results, it was found that the ZnO/α-Fe2O3 (3 wt%) nanorod composites exhibit a higher hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity when compared to other composites. The synergetic effect between ZnO and (3 wt%) of α-Fe2O3 nanocomposites resulted in a low onset potential of −125 mV, which can effectively produce more H2 than pure ZnO. The H2 production rate over the composite of ZnO/α-Fe2O3 (3 wt%) clearly shows a significant improvement in the photocatalytic activity in the heterojunction of the ZnO nanorods and α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles on nickel foam.
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Keywords:
hydrogen evolution; nanocomposites; nickel foam; nanorods
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MDPI and ACS Style
Uma, K.; Muniranthinam, E.; Chong, S.; Yang, T.C.-K.; Lin, J.-H. Fabrication of Hybrid Catalyst ZnO Nanorod/α-Fe2O3 Composites for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Crystals 2020, 10, 356. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050356
AMA Style
Uma K, Muniranthinam E, Chong S, Yang TC-K, Lin J-H. Fabrication of Hybrid Catalyst ZnO Nanorod/α-Fe2O3 Composites for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Crystals. 2020; 10(5):356. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050356
Chicago/Turabian StyleUma, Kasimayan, Elavarasan Muniranthinam, Siewhui Chong, Thomas C.-K. Yang, and Ja-Hon Lin. 2020. "Fabrication of Hybrid Catalyst ZnO Nanorod/α-Fe2O3 Composites for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction" Crystals 10, no. 5: 356. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050356
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