Abstract
•Designing of CuNi@RGO-NC electro-catalysts for water splitting in alkaline medium.•CuNi@RGO-NC electro-catalyst shows excellent bifunctional catalytic performance for OER and ORR.•Fairly low onset over-potential and Tafel slopes of CuNi@RGO-NC were observed for OER and ORR.•The retention rate of CuNi@RGO-NC was found to be ~88% which is much higher than that of pure CuNi-NPs (~65%).
Herein, we demonstrate that copper nickel (CuNi)@reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite (NC) is an excellent bifunctional electro-catalyst to oxygen evolution (OER) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORR). CuNi@RGO-NC shows impressive electro-catalytic activity with fairly low onset over-potentials for OER (~135 mV) and ORR (~60 mV) in alkaline medium. Tafel slopes of CuNi@RGO-NC were found to be ~182 and ~86 mV/dec for OER and ORR, respectively. CuNi@RGO-NC exhibits better retention rate (88%) than CuNi nanoparticles (NPs) and also reveals the comparable OER/ORR activities with expensive electro-catalysts (20% Pt/C).