Direct growth of NiCo2O4 nanostructure on conductive substrate by electrospray technique for oxygen evolution reaction

Electrical conductivity between substrate and catalyst is a key factor restricting the OER (oxygen evolution reaction) catalytic activity of transition metal oxides. Herein we report a facile and direct route for synthesizing spinel NiCo2O4 nanostructure on conductive substrates by electrospray technique. By simply altering the substrate temperature, film thickness and voltage, NiCo2O4 with different morphology and electrocatalytic performance was obtained. The optimal performance showed a low overpotential of 375 mV at 10 mA/cm(2) and an excellent stability over 15 h. This work proved that electrospray technology is an effective strategy to fabricate the binder-free catalysts with high activity and stability for OER. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.