Email this article 
Open Access
Subscription or Fee Access
Application of Co3O4 Nanofibers as Hydrogen Evolution Electrodes for Fuel Cells
Abstract
Among the several renewable modes of energy sources, fuel cells are considered to be the most promising source of energy. Introduction of fuel cells was a breakthrough in the history of environmental benign energy applications. The high capital cost of essential components required for the fuel cells has reduced the initial attention received by them, but, by the introduction of nanosized materials reinstated the interest in fuel cells. Stable nanomaterials, especially, nanosized metal oxides can be potential materials for electrodes in the aforementioned application. Electrospinning combined with sol-gel processing is the most suitable technique for the fabrication of high aspect ratio oxide nanofibers. In sol-gel assisted electrospinning process, a sol containing a metal salt (cobalt acetate) and polymer (poly (styrene-co-acrylonitrile), SAN) in a suitable solvent (N, N-dimethylformamide, DMF) was used for the fabrication of xerogel fibers followed by calcination above the degradation temperature of the polymer. Co3O4 nanofibers were characterized using SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, UV-Vis-NIR, Raman, XPS, BET surface area, etc. From SEM and TEM analysis, it was observed that the Co3O4 nanofibers were composed of a large number of nanosized grains and the complete elimination of organic phases was ensured with the help of XRD and FTIR analysis. The graphite rods loaded with these nanofibers were in turn used as electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution from water.
Keywords
References
K. Sinkó, G. Szabó, and M. Zrínyi, “Liquid-Phase Synthesis of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles,” J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol., vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 4127–4135, 2011.
T. Yu, Y. W. Zhu, X. J. Xu, Z. X. Shen, P. Chen, C.-T. Lim, J. T.-L. Thong, and C.-H. Sow, “Controlled Growth and Field-Emission Properties of Cobalt Oxide Nanowalls,” Adv. Mater., vol. 17, no. 13, pp. 1595–1599, 2005.
C.-Y. Liu, C.-F. Chen, and J.-P. Leu, “Fabrication of Mesostructured Cobalt Oxide Sensor and Its Application for CO Detector,” Electrochem. Solid-State Lett., vol. 12, no. 4, pp. J40–J43, Apr. 2009.
L. D. Kadam and P. S. Patil, “Step potential analysis of cobalt oxide-based electrochromic devices,” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 15–23, Dec. 2001.
H.-S. Shim, V. R. Shinde, H. J. Kim, Y.-E. Sung, and W. B. Kim, “Porous cobalt oxide thin films from low temperature solution phase synthesis for electrochromic electrode,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 516, no. 23, pp. 8573–8578, Oct. 2008.
C. N. P. da Fonseca, M.-A. De Paoli, and A. Gorenstein, “The electrochromic effect in cobalt oxide thin films,” Adv. Mater., vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 553–555, 1991.
E. Barrera, I. González, and T. Viveros, “A new cobalt oxide electrodeposit bath for solar absorbers,” Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 69–82, Feb. 1998.
Z. Abdel Hamid, A. Abdel Aal, and P. Schmuki, “Nanostructured black cobalt coatings for solar absorbers,” Surf. Interface Anal., vol. 40, no. 11, pp. 1493–1499, 2008.
J. Zhu, K. Kailasam, A. Fischer, and A. Thomas, “Supported Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles As Catalyst for Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols in Liquid Phase,” ACS Catal., vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 342–347, Apr. 2011.
S. P. Jiang and A. C. C. Tseung, “Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalytic Reactions in Cobalt Oxide/Graphite Air Electrodes III . Deposition of Cobalt Oxide Catalysts onto Graphite Electrodes for Oxygen Reduction,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 137, no. 11, pp. 3442–3446, Nov. 1990.
Y. Feng and X. Zheng, “Copper Ion Enhanced Synthesis of Nanostructured Cobalt Oxide Catalyst for Oxidation of Methane,” ChemCatChem, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 1551–1554, 2012.
F. Jiao and H. Frei, “Nanostructured Cobalt Oxide Clusters in Mesoporous Silica as Efficient Oxygen-Evolving Catalysts,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., vol. 48, no. 10, pp. 1841–1844, 2009.
X. Lu, X. Huang, S. Xie, T. Zhai, C. Wang, P. Zhang, M. Yu, W. Li, C. Liang, and Y. Tong, “Controllable synthesis of porous nickel–cobalt oxide nanosheets for supercapacitors,” J. Mater. Chem., vol. 22, no. 26, pp. 13357–13364, Jun. 2012.
G. Hu, C. Tang, C. Li, H. Li, Y. Wang, and H. Gong, “The Sol-Gel-Derived Nickel-Cobalt Oxides with High Supercapacitor Performances,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 158, no. 6, pp. A695–A699, Jun. 2011.
W. Yao, J. Yang, J. Wang, and Y. Nuli, “Multilayered Cobalt Oxide Platelets for Negative Electrode Material of a Lithium-Ion Battery,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 155, no. 12, pp. A903–A908, Dec. 2008.
O. C. Compton, A. Abouimrane, Z. An, M. J. Palmeri, L. C. Brinson, K. Amine, and S. T. Nguyen, “Exfoliation and Reassembly of Cobalt Oxide Nanosheets into a Reversible Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode,” Small, vol. 8, no. 7, pp. 1110–1116, 2012.
Y. Gu, F. Jian, and X. Wang, “Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured Co3O4 fibers used as anode materials for lithium ion batteries,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 517, no. 2, pp. 652–655, Nov. 2008.
L. Mendoza, V. Albin, M. Cassir, and A. Galtayries, “Electrochemical deposition of Co3O4 thin layers in order to protect the nickel-based molten carbonate fuel cell cathode,” J. Electroanal. Chem., vol. 548, pp. 95–107, May 2003.
S. R. Mishra, I. Dubenko, J. Losby, K. Ghosh, M. Khan, and N. Ali, “Anomalous Magnetic Properties of Mechanically Milled Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles,” J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol., vol. 5, no. 12, pp. 2076–2081, 2005.
H. T. Yang, C. M. Shen, Y. K. Su, T. Z. Yang, H. J. Gao, and Y. G. Wang, “Self-assembly and magnetic properties of cobalt nanoparticles,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 82, no. 26, pp. 4729–4731, Jun. 2003.
J. Livage, M. Henry, and C. Sanchez, “Sol-gel chemistry of transition metal oxides,” Prog. Solid State Chem., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 259–341, 1988.
P. Du, L. Song, J. Xiong, N. Li, Z. Xi, L. Wang, D. Jin, S. Guo, and Y. Yuan, “Coaxial electrospun TiO2/ZnO core–sheath nanofibers film: Novel structure for photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells,” Electrochim. Acta, vol. 78, no. 0, pp. 392–397, Sep. 2012.
N. S. McIntyre and M. G. Cook, “X-ray photoelectron studies on some oxides and hydroxides of cobalt, nickel, and copper,” Anal. Chem., vol. 47, no. 13, pp. 2208–2213, Nov. 1975.
D. Briggs and V. Gibson, “Direct observation of multiplet splitting in 2p photoelectron peaks of cobalt complexes,” Chemical Physics Letters, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 493–496, 1974.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.