Cu2O-based trifunctional catalyst for enhanced alkaline water splitting and hydrazine oxidation: Integrating sulfurization, Co incorporation, and LDH heterostructure

Abstract

Developing an efficient electrocatalyst capable of working for multiple catalytic reactions in the same pH environment is a challenging task. In this work, we aimed to address this challenge by employing a systematic approach including sulfurization, Co incorporation, and heterostructure formation with layered double hydroxide (LDH) to unveil the potential of Cu2O for driving multiple catalytic reactions. The systematically modified Cu2O-electrocatalyst demonstrated remarkable efficiency in promoting the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR). The LDH-modified Cu2O_S_Co_CoFe sample exhibited an outstanding catalytic activity with low overpotentials of 280 mV for HER and 307 mV for OER at 100 mA cm−2 current density. The same sample also exhibited a remarkably reduced potential of only 0.343 V vs. RHE (VRHE) for HzOR at 100 mA cm−2 as compared to that of 1.53 VRHE for OER. Moreover, in a two-electrode setup for overall water splitting, the electrocatalyst achieved a significantly low cell voltage of 1.64 V to attain a current density of 20 mA cm−2 and further reduced to just 0.36 V during HzOR.