The development of efficient active inexpensive metal catalysts for water electrolysis has been a promising way to produce hydrogen. Herein, an electrode composed of NiCo₂O₄ nanoneedle and molybdenum carbide coated on carbon cloth (NiCo₂O₄/Mo₂C/CC) is prepared based on the hydrothermal process. The CC enhances the electric conduction ability of the system. The heterojunction between Mo₂C and NiCo₂O₄ makes NiCo₂O₄ nanoneedle diminished and leads to production of richened oxygen vacancies. Therefore, NiCo₂O₄/Mo₂C/CC presents the low overpotential of 120 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 220 mV for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at 10 mA cm⁻² used in water splitting. Meanwhile, NiCo₂O₄/Mo₂C/CC shows remarkable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance. With NiCo₂O₄/Mo₂C/CC used as catalyst in air cathode, the prepared Zn-air battery exhibits a capacity of 778 mAh g⁻¹ and an energy density of 104 mW cm⁻², showing promising applications to replace the expensive rare-metal catalysts.

开发用于水电解的高效活性廉价金属催化剂已成为生产氢气的一种有前途的方法。在此，基于水热法制备了由NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米针和涂覆在碳布上的碳化钼（NiCo ₂ O ₄ /Mo ₂ C/CC）组成的电极。CC增强了系统的导电能力。Mo ₂ C 和NiCo ₂ O ₄之间的异质结使NiCo ₂ O ₄纳米针减少并导致富氧空位的产生。因此，NiCo ₂ O ₄ /Mo ₂C/CC 在用于水分解的10 mA cm ^{-2 下}呈现出 120 mV 的析氢反应 (HER) 和 220 mV 的析氧反应 (OER) 的低过电位。同时，NiCo ₂ O ₄ /Mo ₂ C/CC 表现出显着的氧还原反应（ORR）性能。将NiCo ₂ O ₄ /Mo ₂ C/CC用作空气阴极催化剂，所制备的锌空气电池容量为778 mAh g ^-1，能量密度为104 mW cm ^-2，有望替代锌空气电池。昂贵的稀有金属催化剂。