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To deal with fossil fuel depletion and the rise in global temperatures caused by fossil fuels, cheap and abundant materials are required, in order to fulfill energy demand by developing high-performance fuel cells and electrocatalysts. In this work, a natural organic agent has been used to synthesize nanostructured ZnO/Mn 3 O 4 with high surface area and enhanced electrocatalytic performance. Upon preannealing treatment, mixed metal oxide precipitates are formed due to the complex formation between a metal oxide and organic extract. The thermally annealed mixed oxide ZnO/Mn 3 O 4 was characterized by XRD diffractometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) identified methyldecylamine as a major stabilizing agent of the synthesized nanomaterial. Using a Tauc plot, the calculated band energy for the synthesized ZnO/Mn 3 O 4 mixed metal oxide was 1.65 eV.Moreover, we have demonstrated the effects of incorporated organic compounds on the surface chemistry, morphology and electrochemical behavior of ZnO/Mn 3 O 4 . The phyto-functionalized ZnO/ Mn 3 O 4 was deposited on Ni-foam for electrocatalytic studies. The fabricated electrode revealed good performance with low over-potential and Tafel slope, suggesting it to be suitable as a potential catalyst for water splitting application, in particular for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The overall findings of the current study provide a cost-effective and efficient organic template for functionalization and sustainable fabrication of ZnO/Mn 3 O 4 nanomaterial for application as an electrocatalyst.

A modified co-precipitation method has been used for the synthesis of PdO–2Mn2O3 nanocomposite as an efficient electrode material for the electro-catalytic oxygen evolution (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).

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Background: Earth's abundant natural materials can be exploited for their potential in producing economically viable and sustainable electrocatalysts for clean energy generation. Herein, we employed a low cost and environmentally benign synthesis approach using plant extract as capping agent to synthesize bimetallic NiO/ZrO 2 (nickel/Zirconiu mixed oxides; NZMO), and then studied their electrocatalytic properties.Results: The synthesized material was characterized for its elemental, compositional and morphological feature elucidation. The phytocapping agents were probed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) which confirmed the active contribution of phytocompounds in synthesis as capping and stabilizing agents. Elemental and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis manifested the presence of Ni, Zr and O content with morphological elucidations representing well-defined structures. The synthesized material was systematically investigated for electrocatalytic performance towards an oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Electrochemical testing showed that the NZMO exhibits remarkable enhanced catalytic activity with 0.39 V overpotential value and 72 mV dec −1 Tafel value at an existing density of 10 mA cm −2 , which is comparable to that of precious metal catalysts. Conclusion: Experimental investigation demonstrates that the remarkable OER performance of NZMO could be attributed to intrinsic catalytic properties originating as a result of binary materials. Moreover, the organic compounds involved in the synthesis mechanism also could be the major contributors in terms of provision of active sites due to protons. Thus, the present work presents a promising electrocatalytic material using mixed metal oxides and paves a novel path toward the green synthesis of binary oxides with improved electrocatalytic performance.