Growth of surfactant-free Au-Co bimetallic atom-bomb cracker-like microstructures: A highly active morphological dependent hybrid electrocatalyst for dioxygen reduction

This paper reports the formation of atom-bomb fire cracker (ABC) like Au-Co heterostructures by attaching folic acid-capped AuNPs (FA-AuNPs) on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode followed by cobalt electrodeposition. The characteristic absorption band at 516 nm from the UV–visible spectrum confirms the AuNPs formation and their average size was ∼6 nm as evidenced from HR-TEM. The AuNPs were then assembled on a GC electrode via 1,6-hexadiamine linker followed by the electrodeposition of Co at various applied potentials and time. XPS spectra of Au-Co clearly revealed the zero valent nature of Au and Co and Co2+ in the bimetallic assembly. The SEM results exhibited the variations in the morphology of Au-Co with respect to the applied potential and time. It was found that the deposition of Co at -0.50 V for 600 s leads to the formation of ABC-like structure only at FA-AuNPs surface. The specific atom-bomb morphology of Au-Co was not obtained at bare GC and citrate-capped AuNPs surfaces, indicating the influence of FA-AuNPs. The Au-Co showed higher electrocatalytic activity towards dioxygen reduction by shifting the onset potential by 230 and 280 mV towards zero respectively than Co and AuNPs alone. The Koutecky-Levich plot confirms the four-electron transfer mechanism of oxygen reduction at Au-Co fabricated electrode.