LSTN (La0.4Sr0.4Ti0.9Ni0.1O3-&) perovskite and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) hybrids as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for water-splitting applications

The main focus of this work is the development of nonprecious, highly effective, stable, and bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting. In this paper, a highly active electrocatalyst LSTN was designed, which is composed of LSTN (La0.4Sr0.4Ti0.9Ni0.1O3-&) perovskite and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by sol-gel method followed by calcination at high temperature. XRD, SEM, EDX, and FTIR are the techniques used to characterize the prepared catalysts. In alkaline media, LSTN and g-C3N4 hybrids exhibit exceptional electro-catalytic activity for water splitting. Specifically, 3 wt% g-C3N4 @LSTN hybrid shows excellent electro-catalytic activity for both oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions by offering a small overpotential of 62 mV and 148 mV at 10 mA cm-2, respectively. It also exhibits small values of the Tafel slope for oxygen evaluation reaction (OER) and hydrogen evaluation reaction (HER), which are 119 and 32 mVdec-1, respectively. Results showed that 3 wt% g-C3N4 @LSTN hybrid is a highly active, stable, and economical electrocatalyst and proves to be the promising option for water splitting.