{"id":47585,"date":"2025-05-15T12:25:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T06:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=47585"},"modified":"2025-05-29T13:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T07:59:43","slug":"oxygen-electrocatalysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/oxygen-electrocatalysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxygen Electrocatalysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Oxygen Electrocatalysis Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Researchers from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), have developed a novel iron-doped catalyst aimed at improving oxygen-related electrocatalytic reactions.<\/p>\n<h2>About Oxygen Electrocatalysis<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Oxygen electrocatalysis<\/strong>\u00a0is a fundamental process in\u00a0<strong>clean energy technologies<\/strong>\u00a0such as:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Water splitting<\/strong>\u00a0for\u00a0<strong>hydrogen production<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li>Generation of\u00a0<strong>clean fuels<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li>Synthesis of\u00a0<strong>hydrogen peroxide<\/strong>\u00a0(H\u2082O\u2082).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These technologies face major challenges like\u00a0<strong>slow reaction kinetics<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>high energy consumption<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>high material costs<\/strong>\u00a0due to reliance on\u00a0<strong>precious metals<\/strong>\u00a0like\u00a0<strong>platinum (Pt)<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>ruthenium Ru)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Catalyst Composition and Functionality<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>After\u00a0<strong>selenium (Se) incorporation<\/strong>, the researchers created two main catalyst variants:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>NixFe\u2081\u2212xSe\u2082\u2013NC<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ni\u2083\u2212xFexSe\u2084\u2013NC<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The most efficient variant,\u00a0<strong>NixFe\u2081\u2212xSe\u2082\u2013NC@400<\/strong>, showed\u00a0<strong>outstanding bifunctional catalytic performance<\/strong>\u00a0for:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 production of oxygen gas,<\/li>\n<li><strong>Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 conversion of oxygen into useful chemicals like hydrogen peroxide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For\u00a0<strong>OER<\/strong>, this catalyst exhibited\u00a0<strong>lower overpotential<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>high durability over 70 hours<\/strong>, surpassing conventional\u00a0<strong>ruthenium-based catalysts<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>For\u00a0<strong>ORR<\/strong>, especially for\u00a0<strong>H\u2082O\u2082 production<\/strong>, it outperformed\u00a0<strong>platinum-based catalysts<\/strong>\u00a0in terms of\u00a0<strong>reaction speed<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>efficiency<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>stability<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Innovation in Catalyst Design<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The CeNS team developed a\u00a0<strong>low-cost and efficient catalyst<\/strong>\u00a0using\u00a0<strong>nickel selenide<\/strong>\u00a0enhanced with\u00a0<strong>iron (Fe) doping<\/strong>, which significantly improves performance while\u00a0<strong>reducing reliance on expensive precious metals<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The catalyst was synthesised starting from a\u00a0<strong>metal-organic framework (MOF)<\/strong>, known for its\u00a0<strong>high porosity<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>catalytic potential<\/strong>, but limited by\u00a0<strong>poor electrical conductivity<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Iron (Fe) doping<\/strong>\u00a0was used to\u00a0<strong>modify the MOF&#8217;s electronic structure<\/strong>, enhancing its\u00a0<strong>catalytic activity<\/strong>\u00a0by creating more\u00a0<strong>active sites<\/strong>\u00a0and improving\u00a0<strong>reaction intermediate binding<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The MOF was further\u00a0<strong>converted into a carbon-rich material<\/strong>\u00a0using\u00a0<strong>pyrolysis<\/strong>, a high-temperature process that enhanced the\u00a0<strong>material&#8217;s electrical conductivity<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Oxygen Electrocatalysis FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:\u00a0<\/strong>What is Oxygen Electrocatalysis?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Oxygen Electrocatalysis refers to the acceleration of electrochemical reactions involving oxygen molecules, particularly the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in energy devices like fuel cells and water electrolysers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:\u00a0<\/strong>Why is Oxygen Electrocatalysis important in energy storage?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0It is crucial for improving the efficiency of renewable energy storage systems, especially in metal-air batteries, hydrogen production, and fuel cells.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3:\u00a0<\/strong>What materials are used as oxygen electrocatalysts?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Catalysts include noble metals like platinum and iridium, and newer research focuses on non-noble materials such as transition metal oxides, nitrides, and single-atom catalysts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2128622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oxygen electrocatalysis boosts OER &#038; ORR reactions in energy devices like fuel cells and electrolysers, aiding efficient clean energy conversion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[451,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-47585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-oxygen-electrocatalysis","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}