Fabrication of zirconium ditelluride/graphene oxide nanocomposite array for oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions

Future commercial energy conversion and storage requisitions may involve using two-dimensional (2D) materials that retain their structure and are feasible for water electrolysis. In this study, we advance in tuning the electronic arrangement of 2D materials like ZrTe2/graphene oxide for electrocatalytic energy conversions such as oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as well as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The fabricated materials characterize via X-rays diffraction analysis (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) adsorption-desorption isotherm to confirm their structure, shape, size and porosity. Subsequently, the fabricated nanocomposite employs for the electrochemical characterization, and the resultant composite shows a meager overpotential of 208 mV with a minimal Tafel slope of 31 mV/dec at a current density of the 10 mA/cm2 for the oxygen evolution process and represents the overpotential of 242 mV@-10 mA/cm2 for hydrogen evolution process. The fabricated ZrTe2/GO nanocomposite also shows the high stability of 40 h compared to the individual materials. This strategy provides a novel approach to designing tellurium-based nanomaterials for various applications.