Electrocatalytic activity of iron and nickel phthalocyanines supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes towards oxygen evolution reaction

Non-noble metal catalysts for oxygen evolution were prepared by dispersing iron (II) phthalocyanine (FePc) and nickel (II) phthalocyanine (NiPc) on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) which were used as high surface area support. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of those MWCNT-supported catalysts in alkaline and acidic solutions was studied by different electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltamperometry, chronoamperometry (CA) and galvanostatic measurement. The developed hybrid catalysts showed better performance in basic solution and in this media NiPc/MWCNT catalyst had shown better OER performance than FePc/MWCNT. The electrodes were resistive to passivation and had reasonable stability. The obtained results suggest that the MWCNT support plays an important role on the catalytic properties towards the OER. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.