Research Projects

In pursuit of the carbon-free energy portfolio, electrocatalytic water splitting offers a promising avenue for the sustainable production of green fuel. In this regard, the design of cost-effective, environmentally benign and high-performance transition metal-(oxy)hydroxide electrocatalysts with conventional 2D structures endow a wide window for sustainable water splitting owing to their chemical stability, larger surface area and wider electrolytic compatibility. This research proposal deals with the design and development of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)-derived ultra-thin layered transition metal (oxy)hydroxide (MOOH) (M=Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) through the electrochemical-reconstitution approach. Additionally, structural fabrication of the MOOH will be carried out by introducing late 3d metal ions as dopants to elevate the interfacial charge transfer property and electrocatalytic efficiency. The bare and modified MOOH will be characterized by different spectroscopic, morphological, structural and analytical techniques. The performance of the MOOH will be enhanced through the development of heterometallic MOOH which will introduce dual catalytic centres to facilitate the adsorption of oxygen and hydrogen at neighbouring active centres for an improved WS process. Further, oxygen vacancies will be created through charge compensation and cation doping which will populate the active sites. Additionally, the fabrication of a binder-free electrode using MOF as a sacrificial template to produce layered MOOH on the surface of the conducting substrate is a fascinating approach. Therefore, in situ, electrochemical reconstitution will rationally be devised to transform a developed MOF, grown directly on the conducting substrate to achieve benchmark electrochemical activity in the WS. To validate the practical potential of the electrocatalysts, their performance will be evaluated under industrially relevant and demanding conditions. The performance of the designed electrocatalysts will be evaluated towards electrocatalytic water splitting by assessing overpotential, onset potential, faradic efficiency, turnover frequency, number of active sites, long-term stability, double layer capacitance and some other electrochemical parameters. The post-electrochemical characterization and mechanistic aspects for improved WS performance will be investigated using electrochemical, analytical and computational analysis. The electrocatalytic activity will be compared with the reported benchmark catalysts RuO2 for OER and Pt/C for HER to bridge the gap between laboratory and industrial-scale productivity and efficiency. We anticipate that the precise regulation of the highly active 2D ultrathin nanosheets of MOOH and modified electrocatalysts with less-thicknesses can tune the OER and HER performance to a great extent. Finally, the most promising electrocatalysts will be patented, laying the foundation for their future commercialization in sustainable energy technologies.