Abstract
Low cost and easily available electro-catalysts are greatly demandable to fulfill energy needs by fabricating the high performance energy generating devices such as fuel cells. In the current work, natural phyto-stabilizing agents have been employed to synthesize nano-structured particles of NiO:ZnO/PdO having higher surface area and superior electrocatalytic properties. Prior to thermal treatment the precipitates of respective metal salts have been appeared because of formation of a complex between metal oxide and extract of phyto-organic material. After calcinations, obtained black colored product of NiO:ZnO/PdO was characterized by spectroscopic techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Based on XRD results, Scherer formula was used to calculate crystallite size which was in well agreement with SEM results taken at different magnification confirming synthesis of NiO:ZnO/PdO nanocomposite. The phyto synthesized powder's slurry was casted over Ni and was verified for purpose of electro-catalysis for renewable energy. The fabricated electrode revealed a good deal of improved performance with over-potential value of 0.41V and the Tafel slope of 76 mV/dec. when tested for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The catalyst has also been tested for Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) studies and the findings were quite satisfactory. Thus current work provides a way leading to fabrication of low cost metal oxide based electrode material using facile greener synthesis approach.