Substantial Electrocatalytic Oxygen Evolution Performances of Activated Carbon‐Decorated Vanadium Pentoxide Nanocomposites
Sankar Sekar, P. Ilanchezhiyan, Abu Talha Aqueel Ahmed, Youngmin Lee, Sejoon Lee
Abstract
Developing the ecofriendly and high‐fidelity electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential to foster effective production of environmentally friendly hydrogen. Herein, we fabricated the highly efficient OER electrocatalysts of the activated carbon‐decorated vanadium pentoxide (AC‐V 2 O 5 ) nanocomposites using a facile hydrothermal technique. The AC‐V 2 O 5 nanocomposites displayed an aggregated structure of the AC nano‐sheet‐anchored orthorhombic V 2 O 5 nanorods. When performing the OER process in an alkaline electrolyte at 10 mA/cm 2 , AC‐V 2 O 5 exhibited the low overpotential (~230 mV), small Tafel slope (~54 mV/dec), and excellent stability. These substantial OER performances of AC‐V 2 O 5 could be ascribed to the synergistic effects from both the electrochemically active V 2 O 5 nanorods and the highly conductive AC nanosheets. The results infer that the AC‐V 2 O 5 nanocomposites possess a substantial aptitude as a high‐performance OER electrocatalyst for production of the future green energy source—hydrogen.