Abstract
As a type of novel electrocatalytic materials, delafossite CuAlO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with an average particle size of 20 nm were synthesized by a facile ultrasonic synthesis followed with annealing at 850 degrees C in N-2 for the first time. Their phase purity, size and morphology were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopic studies. Their electrochemical performance studies demonstrated promising catalytic activity in the electrolysis of water to the hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER) compared to bulk CuAlO2. More specifically, these CuAlO2 nanoparticles showed 12 times higher current density to the OER than the bulk counterpart. Hence, being a low-cost semiconducting material, these delafossite CuAlO2 nanoparticles with the size of 20 urn could be useful to further study their other applications like solar cells, photochemical water splitting, proton exchange membrane water electrolysis etc. (C) 2015 American Chemical Society