Investigating the effect of doping LaCoO3 in CoFe2O4 forming nanocomposite, towards oxygen evolution and methanol oxidation reactions in alkaline medium

CoFe2O4-LaCoO3 was synthesized employing a two-step, low-temperature wet chemical method involving co-precipitation and sol-gel techniques. The co-precipitation process was employed to prepare CoFe2O4, with pH regulation at 11 using NaOH solution. Subsequently, CoFe2O4-LaCoO3 was synthesized via sol-gel process. The synthesized materials were subjected to physicochemical analysis using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The electrocatalytic properties of these materials were evaluated in terms of their performance towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in alkaline medium. The redox behaviour of the materials was characterized through cyclic voltammetry analysis in 1M KOH solution. The electrocatalytic activity of the materials, when assessed using anodic polarization curves revealed that CoFe2O4-LaCoO3 exhibited higher activity, with current densities of 1.6 mA cm(-2) for OER and 9.2 mA cm(-2) for MOR recorded at 650 mV. Further, the thermodynamic parameters like standard enthalpy of activation (Delta H-degrees#), standard entropy of activation (Delta S-degrees#) and standard electrochemical energy of activation (Delta H-el(degrees#)) were calculated by recording anodic polarization curve in KOH as well as KOH with CH3OH solutions at various temperatures. The findings presented in this study demonstrate the promising electrocatalytic performance of CoFe2O4-LaCoO3 film electrode for applications in OER and MOR under alkaline condition.