Chromium substituted iron oxide nanowires as affordable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction

Earth-abundant metal oxides have become center of attention in the application of electrochemical energy conversion and storage. In this work, CrFeO3 was synthesized as a new catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The structural and chemical properties of CrFeO3 were characterized by TEM, SEM, EDX, XRD, XPS, and BET analyses. The microscopy images reveal that CrFeO3 have wire-like morphology, which was formed by assembly of ca. 14nm nanocrystallites. Then, potential utility of the synthesized nanowires (NWs) as catalysts in OER has been investigated. The CrFeO3 NW-modified fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) electrodes exhibited promising OER performance with an onset potential of 1.63V vs RHE, overpotential of 737mV at 10mAcm(-2) current density, and Tafel slope of 57mVdec(-1). Additionally, CrFeO3 NWs are demonstrated to be very stable electrocatalyst during OER. The CrFeO3 NWs present an overall electrocatalytic performance that is comparable to the one of RuO2, and promise a great potential as an effective and affordable OER catalyst.