Nickel Tellurate Nanorods and Nanoparticles for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

Materials that lead to devices with tunable responses to the morphology are a potential opportunity. Tellurium, a growing material class possessing higher electronic conductivity, has recently been seen to exhibit the same in transition-metal-based complexes when combined toward wider energy applications. However, it has rarely been engineered and implemented for morphology-dependent low-dimensional (LD) structures for catalytic reactions. Herein, for the first time, we provide a novel approach for designing dimension variable nano nickel tellurate (NTO), such as nanorods (NRs), through pH assisted anisotropic transformation from the zero-dimensional amorphous counterpart. The resulting NRs have an average width of 5–30 nm and lengths in micrometers. Mechanistic studies show that the morphology of the final product is determined by the pH value used. In line with structural phase analysis, average core-level spectroscopic and local spectro-microscopic determinations confirm the formation of Ni2+- and Te4+/Te6+-based NTO NRs via electronic structure investigation and covalency. Our study not only provides a fresh approach to achieve varied NTO NRs but also offers insights into the growth reaction mechanisms of anisotropic transformation. The proposed facile design scheme can be optimized to synthesize any nanotellurates with morphological purity to promote the catalytic reactions through low-dimensional activity. As an example, these samples were tested for the oxygen evolution reaction.