Fuel cell performance largely relies on the activity of catalyst; hence development of high performance electrocatalysts for the electrooxidation of methanol is highly essential for the further development in fuel cell technology. Herein, we demonstrate a facile hydrothermal approach for the growth of NiCo₂O₄ nanorods and their application in the methanol electrooxidation. The morphology and surface area investigation reveal the growth of NiCo₂O₄ nanorods with an average length of 500 nm and a specific surface area of 123 m²/g, respectively. The NiCo₂O₄ nanorods displayed a larger electrochemical activity towards the electrooxidation of methanol in alkaline pH than the quasi-spherical NiCo₂O₄ nanoparticles. On the NiCo₂O₄ nanorod based electrode a higher catalytic current density of 129 mA/cm² and a high stability with 86% current retention was achieved, signifying that the current non-Pt based catalyst could be a non-expensive alternative candidate for high performance fuel cell application.

燃料电池的性能很大程度上取决于催化剂的活性。因此，开发用于甲醇电氧化的高性能电催化剂对于燃料电池技术的进一步发展至关重要。在这里，我们展示了一种方便的水热方法，用于NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米棒的生长及其在甲醇电氧化中的应用。形态学和表面积研究表明，平均长度为500 nm的NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米棒的生长和比表面积为123 m ² / g。NiCo ₂ O ₄与准球形NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米粒子相比，纳米棒在碱性pH下对甲醇的电氧化表现出更大的电化学活性。在基于NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米棒的电极上，实现了129 mA / cm ²的更高催化电流密度和86％的电流保持率的高稳定性，这表明当前的非Pt基催化剂可能是该催化剂的一种廉价替代品高性能燃料电池的应用。