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Facile hydrothermal synthesis of 3D flower-like NiCo2O4/CeO2 composite as effective oxygen reduction reaction catalyst

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Abstract

Exploiting high-performance and cost-effective non-noble metal catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is still greatly important for energy storage devices such as metal-air batteries and fuel cells. In this work, CeO2, NiCo2O4, and NiCo2O4/CeO2 were synthetized by facile hydrothermal method and used as an ORR catalyst. The as-prepared CeO2, NiCo2O4, and NiCo2O4/CeO2 samples were measured by XRD, XPS, SEM, and TEM. Electrochemical characterization tests exhibit that the ORR activity of NiCo2O4 is evidently enhanced by blending with CeO2 nanoparticles. The NiCo2O4/CeO2 composite exhibits more superior electrocatalytic performances and stability in alkaline solution as compared to the pure CeO2 and NiCo2O4. The electrochemical performance of composite is very near to that of 20 wt% Pt/C. Owing to the synergistic interactions, NiCo2O4/CeO2 favors a four-electron pathway in ORR and exhibits a higher ORR activity than CeO2 and NiCo2O4. The outstanding performance confirms the NiCo2O4/CeO2 composite as a promising efficient ORR catalyst in metal-air batteries and fuel cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 2018CDGFCL0005 and 2019CDYGYB018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Jinxing Wang, Xiaoyang Dong, Jingdong Yang, Ling Zhu, Wen Zeng & Jingfeng Wang

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  1. Jinxing Wang
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Wang, J., Dong, X., Yang, J. et al. Facile hydrothermal synthesis of 3D flower-like NiCo2O4/CeO2 composite as effective oxygen reduction reaction catalyst. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 16600–16608 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-04215-8

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