Synthesis of one dimensional Cu2S nanorods using a self-grown sacrificial template for the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER)

Abstract

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical in electrochemical water splitting and requires an efficient, sustainable, and cheap catalyst for successful practical applications. To fulfill these requirements, a simple approach is adopted by developing a nanostructured active material directly on a conducting backbone. The self-grown nanorod template on a conducting backbone of Cu is used as a sacrificial template and to convert this nanorod template into Cu2S nanorods, a simple ion-exchange method is adopted for the first time. When used as an electrocatalyst for the OER Cu2S nanorods required an overpotential of 270 mV to achieve a current density 10 mA cm−2and exhibited an excellent stability.