Electrocatalytic Performance of Tremella-Like Nico2o4 Towards Direct Glucose in Alkaline Solution

Abstract

Because of the pollution and energy depletion caused by the burning of fossil energy, the direct glucose fuel cell under alkaline conditions as a clean and efficient device is conducive to the development of human. In this work, we discovered NiCo 2 O 4 and Co 3 O 4 with spinel structure synthesized by the solvothermal method using F127 as the soft template. Then, the structure and electrochemical performance of NiCo 2 O 4 and Co 3 O 4 were systematically studied. The research results of catalytic performance show that NiCo 2 O 4 has better catalytic performances than Co 3 O 4 for the catalytic decomposition of glucose. The specific surface area of NiCo 2 O 4 (123.44 m 2 ·g -1 ) is higher than Co 3 O 4 (49.55 m 2 ·g -1 ), and it has a smaller pore size and larger pore volume. The diffusion coefficient and the sensitivity to glucose of NiCo 2 O 4 is 17.83 times and 4 times than Co 3 O 4 , respectively. And after 30 days of repeated tests, the catalytic activity of the electrode to glucose can still maintain 93.8% of the initial value. This can be attributed to the porous structure of the spinel phase NiCo 2 O 4 , which adds abundant active sites and improves the catalytic activity.

Keywords: NiCo2O4, Electrocatalytic performance, Porous structure, Glucose