Multifunctional hollow spherical delafossite: Massive electrocatalyst for water splitting and photocatalytic degradation of furaltadone antibiotic wastewater

In this article, we developed a delafossite CuCrO2 (CCO) hollow-spheres for electro and photocatalytic bi-functionality. The delafossite hollow-spheres are prepared by using hydrothermal techniques. Additionally, various annealing temperature (500–1000 °C) is applied to obtained the hollow-spheres under N2 atmosphere. Different kinds of analytical analysis utilized to observed the prepared materials physio-chemical characteristics. Hollow-spheres materials utilized as a bifunctional catalysis like electrocatalysis for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as well as photocatalysis for the degradation of furaltadone (FLT) drugs. In particular, the delafossite hollow spheres exhibit a much lower overpotential and Tafel slope of 230 mV and 55 mV/dec for OER. Moreover, it exhibits an excellent photocatalytic degradation efficiency towards the degradation of furaltadone (FLT) antibiotic drugs. The furaltadone drugs in water are completely degraded within 70 min of treatment time under visible light. The toxic and non-toxic nature of the treated solution is proved by green seed germination. The delafossite hollow-sphere is an excellent electro and photocatalyst for environmental and agricultural applications.