High-efficiency spinel-structured electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction synthesized via glycine-nitrate method

As the global environmental crisis intensifies and the energy demand rapidly increases, the need for renewable energy and related technologies to boost energy conversion efficiency becomes crucial. Electrochemical water-splitting is one type of most hopeful ways for generating clean and green hydrogen fuel. Meanwhile, an earth-abundant materials are one of the probable ways for enhancing the overall reaction parameters of water-splitting. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the process where water or hydroxide ions drop electrons to generate oxygen. It is considered as the rate-determining step for overall water-splitting process. Therefore, finding suitable electrocatalysts to reduce the required overpotential for the OER has become a primary task. In this experiment, earth-abundant nickel cobaltite (NiCo₂O₄) spinel nanoparticle is successfully prepared as a catalyst using the glycine combustion method (GNP) and annealed in an air atmosphere at different temperatures. The spinel-type NiCo₂O₄ nanoparticles unveiled a porous structure, and BET analysis revealed a remarkably high specific surface area of 47.2 m²/g. In electrochemical tests, NiCo₂O₄ (annealed at 200 °C) showed a lower resistivity of 12 RΩ. Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) is employed to spot the OER ability under high pH conditions (1 M KOH), which demonstrated that the prepared materials have superior OER performance. Therefore, this material exhibits potential as a promising candidate for energy storage applications.