Effects of Annealing Temperature on the Oxygen Evolution Reaction Activity of Copper-Cobalt Oxide Nanosheets

Developing high performance, highly stable, and low-cost electrodes for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is challenging in water electrolysis technology. However, Ir- and Ru-based OER catalysts with high OER efficiency are difficult to commercialize as precious metal-based catalysts. Therefore, the study of OER catalysts, which are replaced by non-precious metals and have high activity and stability, are necessary. In this study, a copper-cobalt oxide nanosheet (CCO) electrode was synthesized by the electrodeposition of copper-cobalt hydroxide (CCOH) on Ni foam followed by annealing. The CCOH was annealed at various temperatures, and the structure changed to that of CCO at temperatures above 250 °C. In addition, it was observed that the nanosheets agglomerated when annealed at 300 °C. The CCO electrode annealed at 250 °C had a high surface area and efficient electron conduction pathways as a result of the direct growth on the Ni foam. Thus, the prepared CCO electrode exhibited enhanced OER activity (1.6 V at 261 mA/cm²) compared to those of CCOH (1.6 V at 144 mA/cm²), Co₃O₄ (1.6 V at 39 mA/cm²), and commercial IrO₂ (1.6 V at 14 mA/cm²) electrodes. The optimized catalyst also showed high activity and stability under high pH conditions, demonstrating its potential as a low cost, highly efficient OER electrode material.