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Novel lanthanum sulfide–decorated zirconia nanohybrid for enhanced electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction

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Abstract

Metal sulfide and oxides have drawn interest as economical substitutes to noble metal catalysts due to their ability for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities. The inability of many sulfides and oxide nanocomposite materials has been produced in recent years to significantly boost their low OER activity. In the current study, we fabricated a novel lanthanum sulfide (La2S3) nanocrystal decorated on zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) nanoflakes for OER electrocatalyst. The composite attains a low overpotential of 280 mV at a current density of 10 mA/cm2 and outstanding stability of 30 h. The increased catalytic activity of the Zr-O–O superoxo group is responsible for the transfer of electron tendency from La species to ZrO2, which favors the rupture of the bond of Zr–O in the steady arrangement. Hence, the present work developed an efficient La2S3-decorated ZrO2-based oxygen evolution electrocatalyst instead of using rare earth viable catalysts like ruthenium oxide (RuO2) or iridium oxide (IrO2).

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project (Grant No. PNURSP2022R55), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (PNU), P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh, 11671, Saudi Arabia

    F. F. Alharbi

  2. Institute of Chemical Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 60800, Pakistan

    Mehar Un Nisa, Sumaira Manzoor, Abdul Ghafoor Abid & Muhammad Naeem Ashiq

  3. Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Jouf University, Sakaka, 2014, Saudi Arabia

    Hassan Mohamed Ahmed Hassan

  4. Department of Chemistry, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, Pakistan

    Zahoor Ahmad

  5. Department of Physics, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Abu Dhabi Road, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan

    Salma Aman

  6. Chemistry Department, College of Science and Arts, Jouf University, P.O. Box 756, Al-Gurayyat, Saudi Arabia

    Karam S. El-Nasser

  7. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, 71524, Egypt

    Karam S. El-Nasser

  8. Physics Department, College of Science, Jouf University, P.O. Box 2014, Sakaka, Saudi Arabia

    Taha Abdel Mohaymen Taha

  9. Physics and Engineering Mathematics Department, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menoufia University, Menouf, 32952, Egypt

    Taha Abdel Mohaymen Taha

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  1. F. F. Alharbi
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  2. Mehar Un Nisa
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  3. Hassan Mohamed Ahmed Hassan
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  5. Zahoor Ahmad
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  6. Abdul Ghafoor Abid
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  8. Muhammad Naeem Ashiq
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  9. Karam S. El-Nasser
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  10. Taha Abdel Mohaymen Taha
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Correspondence to Muhammad Naeem Ashiq.

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Alharbi, F.F., Nisa, M.U., Hassan, H.M.A. et al. Novel lanthanum sulfide–decorated zirconia nanohybrid for enhanced electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction. J Solid State Electrochem 26, 2171–2182 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-022-05220-z

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