An efficient and durable bifunctional electrocatalyst based on SnO2/CNT toward electrocatalytic full water splitting

ydrogen production from electrochemical water dissociation has been considered as a facile and promising approach to address energy related crisis in the world. In this regard, development of high performance, stable, and cost-effective catalysts for full water splitting is highly demanded. In this work a high performance electrocatalyst based on commercially available Tin oxide nanoparticles mixed with carbon
nanotubes (CNT) is presented for electrocatalytic water splitting. The catalyst prepared through facile dropped casting method and obtained a high electrocatalytic activity for full water splitting. One of the key important parameters in water splitting is producing hydrogen/oxygen at high rate under long term stability. This is problematic because it would result in catalyst degradation and performance fallen. However, herein, the prepared electrocatalyst demonstrated a high stability of more than 10 h operation under a high applied current density of 100 mA.cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction. For the both hydrogen and oxygen, the prepared catalyst (SnO2/CNT coated on carbon paper) delivered the current density of 10 mA.cm−2 at a low overpotentials of 150 mV and 250 mV, respectively. Our observations validate the excellent capability in significantly modifying the catalytic activity of transition metal compound catalysts with carbon nanostructures.