Application of covalent organic framework based on porphyrin and cucurbit[6]uril as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen and oxygen evolution

Abstract

There is great apprehension about consumption of fossil fuels as well as the corresponding environmental issues which has evoked supreme efforts worldwide to develop clean and sustainable energy sources. Electrocatalytic water splitting producing both hydrogen and oxygen gas has shown considerable potential for energy conversion as hydrogen can meet the requirements for future energy demands. Hence it is of utmost importance to introduce novel electrocatalysts to overcome energy barriers for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here this thesis highlights the synthesis and characterization of a novel supramolecular assembly of cucurbit[6]uril and porphyrin and also examines its electrocatalytic activity toward both HER and OER. Electrochemical studies such as linear sweep voltammetry, chronoamperometry, chronopotentiometry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were performed to investigate the activity of the catalyst. The structural and morphological properties of sample were also studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). It was observed that the catalyst was able to show excellent electrocatalytic activity with onset potentials of -0.25 V (for HER) and 1.6 V (for OER) while producing 18.7 and 14.92 mmol.gr-1.hr-1 hydrogen and oxygen gas with faradaic efficiencies of 85% and 99%, respectively.