Bioinspired Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Wrapped Geobacter sulfurreducens as a Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Kalathil, Shafeer, Katuri, Krishna P., Alazmi, Amira S., Pedireddy, Srikanth, Kornienko, Nikolay, Costa, Pedro M. F. J. and Saikaly, Pascal E. (2019) Bioinspired Synthesis of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Wrapped Geobacter sulfurreducens as a Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction. Chemistry of Materials, 31 (10). pp. 3686-3693. ISSN 0897-4756

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Abstract

Doping/decorating of graphene or reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with heteroatoms provides a promising route for the development of electrocatalysts which will be useful in many technologies, including water splitting. However, current doping approaches are complicated, not eco-friendly, and not cost-effective. Herein, we report the synthesis of doped/decorated rGO for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) using a simple approach that is cost-effective, sustainable, and easy to scale up. The OER catalyst was derived from the reduction of GO by an exo-electron-transferring bacterium, Geobacter sulfurreducens. Various analytical tools indicate that OER active elements such as Fe, Cu, N, P, and S decorate the rGO flakes. The hybrid catalyst (i.e., Geobacter/rGO) produces a geometric current density of 10 mA cm–2 at an overpotential of 270 mV versus the reversible hydrogen electrode with a Tafel slope of 43 mV dec–1 and possesses high durability, as evidenced through 10 h of stability testing. Electrochemical analyses suggest the importance of Fe and its possible role as an active site for OER. Overall, this work represents a simple approach toward the development of an earth-abundant, eco-friendly, and highly active OER electrocatalyst for various applications such as solar fuel production, rechargeable metal–air batteries, and microbial electrosynthesis.

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