Highly porous NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures for enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions

In order to advance sustainable energy technologies like fuel cells and metal-air batteries, it is essential to use an electrocatalyst that is very effective for the process of oxygen evolution. The synthesis of NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures led to the creation of a mesoporous nanostructure. The research used an approach that utilised a simple, cost-effective, and low-temperature synthesis procedure. The catalytic efficacy of highly permeable NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures, which include mesoporous nanostructures, was shown to be substantial. The catalyst has the ability to enhance the highly reactive oxygen reactions at the anode, hence increasing the combined effect of interfacial charge transfer and the porous structure of NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures. The results of this study demonstrate that NiCo₂O₄ nanostructures exhibit a significant overpotential value of 335 mV, a Tafel slope of 98 mV dec⁻¹ for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and overpotential value of 168 mV, a Tafel slope of 71 mV dec⁻¹ for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the current density of 10 mA/cm² with excellent stability as electrocatalysts for the OER and HER in the context of sustainable energy resources.