Polyaniline-engineered zinc sulphide nanocomposite as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution process

Hydrogen is the ideal future fuel, since it is clean, saves energy, and is abundant in nature. Though there are several methods for producing hydrogen, only a few of them are environmentally friendly. To employ water electrolysis to make hydrogen and solve the energy shortage problem, highly active electrocatalysts must be created. Zinc sulphide/polyaniline (ZnS/PANI) nanocomposite was successfully produced using a straightforward two-step coprecipitation and polymerization procedure. Different analyses were used to characterize the fabricated materials. The findings show that the ZnS/PANI nanocomposite's morphology has a consistent porous shape, and the electrical structure of the active sites determines how well catalysts can make contact with the intermediates. Multiple attempts have been made to create the most affordable, functional electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reactions (OER). However, clean energy production from such materials is sluggish. In comparison to pure PANI nanofibers (143.14 m² g⁻¹ and 0.4827 nm) and ZnS nanostructures (249.85 m² g⁻¹ and 0.4224 nm), the composite ZnS/PANI displays a greater Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area around 372.65 m² g⁻¹ along with nanoporous size of 0.393 nm due to the interaction, which provides distinctive features in contrast to ZnS and PANI. Synergistically, composite ZnS/PANI indicates lower overpotentials of 132 mV for oxygen evolution performance at 10 mA cm⁻². An improved OER activity is observed by composite ZnS/PANIs as high current density, lower overpotential and reduced Tafel value of 53 mV dec⁻¹. This catalyst also exhibited a significant double-layer capacitance and a large electrochemically active surface area. ZnS/PANI is a magnificent electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution.