Preparation and characterization of antimony nanoparticles for hydrogen evolution activities

Abstract

Modern research focuses exclusively on the search for relatively inexpensive, highly efficient electrocatalytic materials for the electrocatalytic hydrogen production water splitting reactions. Antimony is a chemical element having four allotropes with three oxidation states. Antimony is a semi-metal with elemental antimony. Recently, elemental antimony (Sb) with an extensive light absorption was recognized as good electrocatalytic for hydrogen evolution reactions. This study focuses on preparation and characterization of antimony nanoparticles for hydrogen evolution activities as explored. We report the structural, optical, vibrational, electrochemical properties of the pristine antimony nanoparticles for efficient catalytic material for electrochemical water splitting applications. The prepared antimony nanoparticles revealed the rhombohedral crystal structure formation with D3d5 (R 3¯ m) space group situated on symmetry C3v sites. In Raman studies, the peak appeared at 110.67 cm−1 corresponds to in-plane longitudinal vibration (Eg) and at 147 cm−1 for out of plane vibration (A1g) for pure antimony. The synergic effect of NMP and ultrasonication yields highly homogeneous antimony nanoparticles as evidenced from morphological analysis. From electrochemical impedance analysis, the solution resistance value of Sb-NMP is 1.67 Ω, which was small in comparison to the pure Sb (1.96 Ω) and Sb-Ball (1.93 Ω) and exhibited the good conductive nature of Sb-NMP nanomaterials. From electrochemical HER analysis, we found that the Sb-NMP showed the low 246 mV@10 mA/cm2 overpotential with low 186 mV/dec Tafel slope value. Furthermore, the chronoamperometry study exposed that the electrocatalyst Sb-NMP delivered an exceptional HER performance with high stability of 80% retention for continuous three hours measurements. Therefore, this study may perhaps facilitate the growth of antimony nanoparticles which can be used as an HER catalysts for improving the electrocatalytic HER activity.