Tailoring a low-energy ball milled MnCo2O4 spinel catalyst to boost oxygen evolution reaction performance

Abstract

The development of cost-efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts is one of the most important tasks facing modern techniques for hydrogen production. In this work, for the first time, a low-energy ball milling process of MnCo2O4 (MCO) spinel powders, with a mechanical modification time exceeding 1 day was used. After 6 days of ball-milling, the obtained overpotential of the electrocatalyst reached the value of 375 mV at 10 mA cm−2, which is a relatively low value obtained for this type of compound. The studies showed how the mechanical (low-energy long-term milling process) and chemical modification of the fragmented spinel powder nanoparticle surfaces affects the increase of the electrocatalytic properties. The addition of the appropriate amount of conductive carbon black (cCB) and Nafion ionomer to the ink of the MCO spinel also has a significant effect on the improvement of the catalytic performance of the manganese-cobalt oxide during the milling process. By reducing the amount of Nafion to 10 % of its initial value, the overpotential dropped to 352 mV at 10 mA cm−2 after 30 days of ball-milling. This shows that catalyst ink and layer composition are important factors influencing the catalyst’s efficiency in the OER.