Electrocatalytic performance of mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanosheets with elemental electron synergy towards direct glucose in alkaline solution

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 NiCo2O4 and Co3O4 with spinel structure synthesized by the solvothermal method using F127 as the soft template. Then, the structure and electrochemical performance of NiCo2O4 and Co3O4 were systematically studied. The research results of catalytic performance show that NiCo2O4 has better catalytic performances than Co3O4 for the catalytic decomposition of glucose. The specific surface area of NiCo2O4 (123.44 m2 g−1) is higher than Co3O4 (49.55 m2 g−1), and it has a smaller pore size and larger pore volume. The diffusion coefficient and the sensitivity to glucose of NiCo2O4 is 17.83 times and 4 times than Co3O4, 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 NiCo2O4, which adds abundant active sites and improves the catalytic activity.