Single-Phase CrVO₄ and Rh-Doped CrVO₄ Nanostructures for Efficient Electrocatalytic Performance in Oxygen Evolution Reaction

In recent years, research on hydrogen(H₂) as sustainable energy source has been widely conducted to deal with deteriorating energy problems. Water splitting is promising way to produce pollution-free H₂. However, overall efficiency of water splitting is restricted by sluggish kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER), so effective catalyst is required. Noble metals have been widely studied as efficient OER catalyst, but their scarcity and high cost hinder sustainable water splitting. Therefore, it is necessary to devise an OER catalyst material which is cost-efficient and shows high catalytic activity toward OER. In this work, thus, we report facile formation of single-phase CrVO₄ and Rh-doped CrVO₄ nanostructures via simple acid-base titration followed by thermal annealing process at various temperature and atmosphere conditions. Synthesized CrVO₄ nanostructures were then characterized by using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), micro-Raman spectroscopy. Electrochemical measurements are also conducted to confirm the effectiveness of CrVO₄ based nanostructures as an OER catalyst.