Nickel cobalt oxide/carbon nanotubes hybrid as a high-performance electrocatalyst for metal/air battery

Abstract

High-performance, low cost catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) remains a big challenge. Herein, nanostructured NiCo₂O₄/CNTs hybrid was proposed as a high-performance catalyst for metal/air battery for the first time. The well-formed NiCo₂O₄/CNTs hybrid was studied by steady-state linear polarization curves and galvanostatic discharge curves in comparison with CNTs-free NiCo₂O₄ and commercial carbon-supported Pt. Because of the synergistic effect, NiCo₂O₄/CNTs hybrid exhibited significant improvement of catalytic performance in comparison with NiCo₂O₄ or CNTs alone, even outperforming Pt/C hybrid in ORR process. In addition, the benefits of Ni incorporation were demonstrated by the improved catalytic performance of NiCo₂O₄/CNTs compared to Co₃O₄/CNTs, which should be attributed to improved electrical conductivity and new, highly efficient, active sites created by Ni cation incorporation into the spinel structure. NiCo₂O₄/CNTs hybrid could be used as a promising catalyst for high power metal/air battery.