Electrofabrication of the Ternary NiCuFe Alloy Nanoparticles/ERGO Nanocomposite: Effective Electrooxidation of the Glucose and Glycerol in Alkaline Media

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, a facile and straightforward approach was developed to fabricate a ternary NiCuFe alloy nanoparticles (ANPs) on/in the electrochemically reduced graphene oxide (ERGO) nanocomposite at the carbon‐ceramic electrode (CE); NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE, through a two‐step electrochemical deposition method. After physicochemical characterization of the fabricated nanocomposite, it was found that the NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE has high electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of glucose and glycerol in alkaline media. The obtained results showed that the NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE has excellent electrocatalytic activity in comparison with binary alloy nanoparticles including NiCu and NiFe in the same conditions. Moreover, the achieved results also indicated that the electrocatalytic activity of the NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE has high value in comparison with NiCuFe‐ANPs/CE (without ERGO layers on the CE). The best results for electrooxidation of glucose (Jp=163.14 mA/cm2) and glycerol (Jp=170.35 mA/cm2) were in 0.1 M KOH and 5 mM fuels concentration. Chronoamperometry and chronopotentiometry results showed that the NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE has significant toxic tolerance and stability. Finally, to evaluate the capacity of active sites located on the surface of the NiCuFe‐ANPs/ERGO/CE, high concentrations of glucose and glycerol were used and it was found that the prepared electrocatalyst has a high capacity towards high concentrations of these fuels.