Chemical vapor-deposited nanocarbon/Fe/Al2O3 composite catalysts for oxygen evolution

In this work, a series of carbon nanostructures/Fe/Al2O3 composites, including carbon nanotubes, carbon nanoribbons and graphene, were successfully synthesized through an in-situ chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. The structure and morphology of graphene, carbon nanotubes, and carbon nanoribbons were confirmed by characterization methods such as XRD, SEM, and Raman spectroscopy. Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic performance of these synthesized samples was investigated in 1 M NaOH. All of them exhibit excellent stability with current density loss less than 1 % after 34000 s at the current density of 20 mA cm- 2. Notably, carbon nanotubes/Fe/Al2O3 exhibits highest electrochemical activity with a lowest overpotential of 321 mV at 10 mA cm- 2, and lowest Tafel slope of 25.9 mV dec- 1. This study reveal that carbon nanotube structures have higher potential for electrochemical applications than other carbon nanostructures.