Facile Synthesis and Modification of ZnO/CuO for Electrocatalytic Energy Production and Energy Storage Devices

Abstract

Energy generation from renewable energy assets is beneficial to overcome the energy crises. The efficient development of electrochemical cell and electrochemical energy storage devices is crucial for this purpose. In this research, the hydrothermal synthesis and modification of ZnO/CuO is reported. ZnO-CuO is modified by adding various percentages of porous Ag that is synthesized by Lindlar’s Frost method. Moreover, morphological modification of ZnO-CuO has also been conducted along with the addition of carbon based multi walled carbon nanotubes and polyaniline polymer to determine the energy storage application. The synthesized material was characterized by XRD, Raman, SEM and EDX. The EC measurements indicate that ZnO/CuO-4 % Ag exhibited highest methanol oxidation activity by indicating 642 mA/cm2 current density at 0.54 V vs Ag/AgCl potential as compared to pristine composite ZnO/CuO (387 mA/cm2 vs Ag/AgCl). The onset potential for MOR also decreased from 0.405 V of composite to 0.355 V in ZnO/CuO-4% silver. The composite ZnO/CuO (ZC2) synthesized by adding HMTA and urea indicated greater porosity and surface area and hence the higher charge storage capacity. The specific capacitance is found to be 644 F/g at 1A/g current density. Conducting polymer of aniline further modified the material in ZC2-CNTs-PANI and indicated the Cs of 1411 F/g at 1 A/g CD. This hybrid composite was stable and maintained the capacitive retention of 82.18 % and coloumbic efficiency of 99 %. This indicated the successful modification of material for multiapplication