CNT-integrated MoO₃ nanoparticles for bifunctional electrocatalytic oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions.
8 affiliations
- 1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya Kuala Lumpur 50603 Malaysia.
- 2Department of Chemistry, The University of Lahore 1-km Defence Road Lahore Pakistan [email protected].
- 3Department of Chemistry, Lahore College for Women University Lahore Pakistan.
- 4Innovative Technologies Application and Research Center (YETEM), Süleyman Demirel University Isparta 32260 Turkey.
- 5Department of Chemistry, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore Pakistan.
- 6Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk Tabuk 47913 Saudi Arabia.
- 7Zero Emission Technologies Innovation Center, University of Tabuk Tabuk 47913 Saudi Arabia.
- 8Physics Department, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Riyadh 11671 Saudi Arabia.
Abstract
The escalating global demand for sustainable and clean energy urges the development of efficient electrocatalysts to overcome sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics in overall water splitting. This study investigates the key role of interfacial engineering by integrating orthorhombic α-MoO3 nanoparticles with conductive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form a MoO3@CNTs nanocomposite and systematically compares it with pristine MoO3 to address conductivity-limited electrochemical performance. The underlying poorly conductive MoO3 is employed as a reference system to evaluate the impact of CNT incorporation on charge-transfer resistance, active-site accessibility, and overall bifunctional catalytic efficiency. The electrochemical evaluation trends in relation to overpotential, Tafel slopes, double-layer capacitance (Cdl), electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), and charge-transfer resistance (Rct) are revealed with significantly improved outputs. Among the investigated materials, MoO3@CNTs performs remarkably better than pristine MoO3, achieving low overpotentials of 0.35 V for the OER (50 mA cm-2) and 0.33 V for the HER (-10 mA cm-2) in 1 M KOH, compared to 0.42 V and 0.40 V for MoO3, respectively. This study also reveals the enhanced electrocatalytic behavior of MoO3@CNTs, mainly due to improved electronic conductivity and increased active-site exposure induced by CNT integration, leading to reduced Tafel slopes (217 mV dec-1 for OER and 170 mV dec-1 for HER), lower Rct (5.1 Ω vs. 10.3 Ω), and higher Cdl (26.07 mF cm-2vs. 19.85 mF cm-2) and ECSA (43.71 cm2vs. 30.43 cm2). These findings deepen the understanding of CNT-based interfacial engineering and its effect on MoO3 electrochemical activity and position MoO3@CNTs as a promising bifunctional catalyst for efficient and sustainable hydrogen production.
Related
- Leveraging Microenvironment Effects to Enhance Bifunctional Metal–Organic Framework-Catalyzed Aldol Reactions
- Main-Group Metal Atoms Anchored on Borophene/Al(111) as an Efficient Catalyst for Electrocatalytic Nitrate Pollutant Reduction Reactions: A First-Principle Perspective
- BiFuN: Machine Learning-Guided Bifunctional Catalysis in Hydrogenation Reactions
- Structural evolution-induced strong-coupling in CuRu-Cu2O nanocomposite enables low-overpotential electrocatalytic ammonia synthesis
- Carbon Nanofiber-Integrated CuCo-MOF as a Conductive Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting
BibTeX
@article{ali2026cntintegrated,
title = {{CNT-integrated MoO₃ nanoparticles for bifunctional electrocatalytic oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions.}},
author = {Abid Ali and Reemal Imtesal and Saneea Ata-Ul-Haq and Muhammad Shakeel Alam and Wan Jefrey Basirun and Murat Kaleli and Salih Akyürekli and Amna Safdar and Munawar Iqbal and Kholoud S Al-Mugren},
journal = {RSC advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra06716f},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953233},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - CNT-integrated MoO₃ nanoparticles for bifunctional electrocatalytic oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions.
AU - Abid Ali
AU - Reemal Imtesal
AU - Saneea Ata-Ul-Haq
AU - Muhammad Shakeel Alam
AU - Wan Jefrey Basirun
AU - Murat Kaleli
AU - Salih Akyürekli
AU - Amna Safdar
AU - Munawar Iqbal
AU - Kholoud S Al-Mugren
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/28
JO - RSC advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra06716f
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42953233
AB - The escalating global demand for sustainable and clean energy urges the development of efficient electrocatalysts to overcome sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics in overall water splitting. This study investigates the key role of interfacial engineering by integrating orthorhombic α-MoO3 nanoparticles with conductive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form a MoO3@CNTs nanocomposite and systematically compares it with pristine MoO3 to address conductivity-limited electrochemical performance. The underlying poorly conductive MoO3 is employed as a reference system to evaluate the impact of CNT incorporation on charge-transfer resistance, active-site accessibility, and overall bifunctional catalytic efficiency. The electrochemical evaluation trends in relation to overpotential, Tafel slopes, double-layer capacitance (Cdl), electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), and charge-transfer resistance (Rct) are revealed with significantly improved outputs. Among the investigated materials, MoO3@CNTs performs remarkably better than pristine MoO3, achieving low overpotentials of 0.35 V for the OER (50 mA cm-2) and 0.33 V for the HER (-10 mA cm-2) in 1 M KOH, compared to 0.42 V and 0.40 V for MoO3, respectively. This study also reveals the enhanced electrocatalytic behavior of MoO3@CNTs, mainly due to improved electronic conductivity and increased active-site exposure induced by CNT integration, leading to reduced Tafel slopes (217 mV dec-1 for OER and 170 mV dec-1 for HER), lower Rct (5.1 Ω vs. 10.3 Ω), and higher Cdl (26.07 mF cm-2vs. 19.85 mF cm-2) and ECSA (43.71 cm2vs. 30.43 cm2). These findings deepen the understanding of CNT-based interfacial engineering and its effect on MoO3 electrochemical activity and position MoO3@CNTs as a promising bifunctional catalyst for efficient and sustainable hydrogen production.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -