Copper telluride nanowires for high performance electrocatalytic water oxidation in alkaline media

Active, cost-effective and durable electrocatalysts composed of earth abundant elements for water oxidation reaction are significantly important in the research domain of sustainable energy production and storage. Here, we present hydrothermally synthesized copper telluride nanowires (Cu7Te4-NW) for high activity water oxidation. The successful synthesis of nanoscale catalytic material is characterized through various techniques. The electrocatalyst exhibits the higher intrinsic catalytic performance at very low overpotentials (277 mV), smaller Tafel slope (33 mV dec−1), least charge transfer resistance (1.5 Ω), higher turnover frequency value (2.57 s−1 @ 350 mV), and long-term durability (100 mA for 24 h @ 1.66 V vs RHE), surpassing the electrocatalytic efficiency for Oxides of noble metals i.e. Ru and Ir. DFT calculations demonstrate that the energy for hydroxyl attachment is highly favourable onto the porous substrate of Cu7Te4-NW, further approving its remarkable properties for heightened electrocatalytic water oxidation performance. The highly atypical OER catalytic performance is discovered for Cu7Te4-CF that can be succinctly attributed to its extraordinary structural attributes yielding greater surface area and highly exposed catalytic active sites. The novel catalyst of Cu7Te4-CF can be benchmarked as an alternative for previously scrutinized metal chalcogenides based electrocatalysts for OER due to its efficacious catalytic performance.