TY - JOUR AU - Khalid, Hira AU - Asim, Muhammad AU - Hussain, Akbar AU - Butt, Tehmeena Maryum AU - Kanwal, Sadia AU - Janjua, Naveed Kausar PY - 2025 DA - 2025/11/07 TI - Fabrication of CuO-Decorated Fe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticles as Efficient and Durable Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction JO - Catalysis Research SP - 009 VL - 05 IS - 04 AB - The electrochemical water oxidation application of CuO@Fe2O3 materials as potential catalysts is being reported for the first time. A series of CuO@Fe2O3 with different molar ratios of CuO (5, 7, 10, 12, and 15%) was fabricated through precipitation followed by the impregnation method. Structural and electrochemical studies were carried out by using different analytical platforms, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Cyclic voltammetry (CV), Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Synthesized materials were used as catalytic supports for electrochemical water splitting in alkaline media. The XRD pattern confirmed the formation of rhombohedral crystal structure in all CuO@Fe2O3 nanomaterials, and FTIR analysis showed the phase purity and metal oxygen bond formation below 800 cm-1. The electrochemical explorations showed that when Fe2O3 was combined with CuO, the electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was improved in all compositions. OER catalysis indicated that CuO@Fe2O3 composite containing 10 wt% of CuO (CuFe-10) reaches optimal OER activity with high current density (J, 38.8 mAcm-2), high active surface area (A, 0.87 cm-2), slight Tafel slope (TS, 143 mVdec-1), low charge transfer resistance (Rct, 22.4 Ω), highest diffusion co-efficient (D°, 3.5 × 10-8 cm2s-1), mass transport co-efficient (mt, 3.6 × 10-4 cms-1), heterogenous rate constant (k°, 4.3 × 10-4 cms-1). In addition, all the composite electrocatalysts showed high stability, selectivity, and applicability for electrochemical water oxidation. In conclusion, the synergistic effects between CuO and Fe2O3 increase the number of active catalytic sites and help rapid charge transfer at the electrode/electrolyte interface, and hence, promote the electrocatalytic OER activity. SN - 2771-490X UR - https://doi.org/10.21926/cr.2504009 DO - 10.21926/cr.2504009 ID - Khalid2025 ER -