Transition metal oxide is widely used as a water electrolysis catalyst to substitute for a noble metal catalyst such as $IrO_2$ and $RuO_2$. In this study, the sol-gel method is used to synthesize the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst for the oxygen evolutio...
Transition metal oxide is widely used as a water electrolysis catalyst to substitute for a noble metal catalyst such as $IrO_2$ and $RuO_2$. In this study, the sol-gel method is used to synthesize the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER),. The CuxCo3-xO4 is synthesized at various calcination temperatures from $250^{\circ}C$ to $400^{\circ}C$ for 4 h. The $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a perfect spinel structure without residues of the precursor and secondary phases, such as CuO. The particle size of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ increases with an increase in calcination temperature. Amongst all the samples studied, $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$, which is synthesized at 300?, has the highest activity for the OER. Its onset potential for the OER is 370 mV and the overpotential at $10mA/cm^2$ is 438 mV. The tafel slope of $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ synthesized at $300^{\circ}C$ has a low value of 58 mV/dec. These results are mainly explained by the increase in the available active surface area of the $Cu_xCo_{3-x}O_4$ catalyst.