ADVANCEMENTS IN TRANSITION METAL-DOPED ELECTRO-CATALYSTS: CO AND MN DOPED ZNO NANOPARTICLES FOR COST-EFFECTIVE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION

Abstract

One of the most favorable method for storage of sustainable energy and the society hydrogen realization in the near future is the production of hydrogen by the process of electrochemical water parting. However, the strategic for the large-scale utilization of this method is to produce cheap and much effective electro-catalyst in order to reduce the use of expensive noble metals. Therefore, a variety of bi-functional electro-catalysts based on transition metals for both cathode and anode have previously been established for overall process of water splitting. Herein, we report the use of Co and Mn doped ZnO nanoparticles prepared by hydrothermal method. It was investigated that the doped zinc oxide nanoparticles are in hexagonal shaped with size in the range of few nm. Comparative XRD, SEM and EDX studies revealed that Co²⁺ and Mn²⁺ are uniformly doped into the crystal structure of ZnO. Later on, it was observed that these nanoparticles exhibit excellent efficiency towards water splitting process for the production of hydrogen. It was clear from the results that these electro catalysts were much efficient in order to overcome the energy of activation for the overall process and to reduce the value of over potential.