Production of oxygen via water oxidation using PANI@CuMn2O4 nanocomposite electrocatalyst for OER

Electrochemical water splitting is highly favorable technique for acquiring energy from renewable sources. Nevertheless, the significant overpotential needed for slow oxygen evolution reaction (OER) poses a challenge to its widespread implementation. For this purpose, we prepared PANI@CuMn2O4 nanocomposite through the process of hydrothermal as electrocatalyst for OER. The prepared electrocatalyst demonstrates superior OER efficiency compared to pure CuMn2O4 and PANI. The synthesized PANI@CuMn2O4 nanocomposite has been thoroughly analyzed utilizing several analytical methods, such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), RAMAN spectrum, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These investigates reveals that nanocomposite possesses excellent crystallinity, a nanoparticles morphology and a cubic structure, along with significantly large surface area. The electrocatalytic performance of PANI@CuMn2O4 nanocomposite in 1.0 M alkaline medium was assessed which showed least overpotential (199 mV), a more gradual Tafel slope (37 mV/dec) at current density (Cd) of 10 mA/cm2 and low charge reansfer resistance (Rct) of 0.04 Omega. The nanocomposite also demonstrated durability of 35 h as analyszed via chronoamperometry. The remarkable performance of the prepared nanocomposite can be ascribed to PANI dispersed on the CuMn2O4 2 O 4 surface, which helps to enhance electron conduction. The combination of PANI and CuMn2O4 2 O 4 results in an enhanced surface area, various active sites, low resistivity and remarkable stability, ultimately improving the efficiency of OER process.