Page 69 - Book of Abstracts

th
8 Biannual Conference on Chemistry - CHEM 08

Development of Molybdenum Oxide Modified Cu Foam-

based Electrocatalysts for Efficient HER in Alkaline
Medium

Ibrahim Zayed*, Muhammad G. Abd El-Moghny, Mohamed S. El-
Deab
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo,
Egypt
Email: ibrahimzayed22@gmail.com
ABSTRACT

Water electrolysis is one of the most prominent procedures to produce
high purity hydrogen gas for several applications. Hydrogen stands as a
promising energy source with zero pollution and no emission of green
house gases upon its oxidation (unlike fossil-based fuels) [1]. For
hydrogen production, designing of electrocatalysts with low cost and high
catalytic activity is an important issue [2]. Herein, we developed a facile
strategy for designing an efficient binary electrocatalyst composed of
MoO2 atop copper foam (CuF) for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).
Firstly, a foam layer of Cu is electrodepsoited atop smooth Cu surface
using hydrogen bubbling dynamic template (HBDT) technique, followed
by MoO2 electrodeposition atop of CuF with an aim to enhance its
catalytic activity towards HER. SEM, EDX and XRD techniques are used
to identify the morphology and composition of electrocatalyst.
Electrochemical measurements (CV, LSV, Tafel plots, EIS, and
chronopotentiometry) were performed to characterize the elctrocatalyst
and study its electrocatalytic activity and stability towards HER. The as-
prepared catlayst showed a high catalytic activity with onset potential of
-118 mV vs. RHE at current density of 10 mA/cm . A Tafel slope of 123
2
mV/dec is obtained revealing the predominance of the Volmer-Hyrovesky
or Volmer-Tafel mechanism of HER. Also, the catalyst showed good
stability for a long-term operation by recording its chronopotentiometric
diagram for 3 hours.

References:
(1) Vezirolu, T. N.; Barbir, F. Hydrogen: The Wonder Fuel. Int. J. Hydrogen
Energy 1992, 17 (6), 391–404.

(2) Lin, M. Y.; Hourng, L. W.; Huang, S. H.; Tsai, T. H.; Hsu, W. N. Analysis

BOOK OF ABSTRACTS CHEM 08 (2020) Page 68