Abstract:

The economy of Hydrogen has emerged to be a favorable alternative towards present hydrocarbon’s economy, which not only involves mechanistic approach to renewable resources of energy by splitting water in oxygen and hydrogen; but also utilization of clean hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen production through water electrolysis has been a crucial prerequisite of economy of hydrogen along with zero emission of carbon. Including numerous water splitting technologies, water electrolysis via alkaline media has been commercialized for almost greater than 100 years, demonstrating most economic and mature technology. The development of transition metal electrocatalyst of high durability and efficiency for both OER and HER is highly desired in water splitting but it’s still a challenge till now. Apart from precious metals and their drawbacks transition metal oxides, chalcogenides, (oxy) hydroxides, phosphides nitrides, transition metal alloys, phosphides, and certain carbides have been used as electrocatalyst both for OER and HER.   In the present study, the facile ultrasonication method is employed for synthesis of NiCoFe-layered double hydroxide (LDH) at Nickel foam as active substrate. The effects of concentration and time on the activity of catalyst were investigated and results show that both variables can have impact on performance of catalyst which turned out best for ternary NiCoFe-layered double hydroxide owing to results of 240mV@20mA/cm² for OER and 252@20mA/cm² for HER. Along with electrochemical evaluation, ternary NiCoFe-layered double hydroxide has also been characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and EDS/ elemental mapping. This work offers a unique paradigm for the synthesis of competitive electrocatalyst for overall water splitting with excellent durability under alkaline condition.

Thesis Committee

• Dr. Habib-ur-Rehman (supervisor)
• Dr. Basit Yameen (thesis committee member/evaluator)
• Dr. Muhammad Zaheer (thesis committee member/evaluator)