The Effect of Heteroatom Doping on Nickel Cobalt Oxide Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution and Reduction Reactions

The synthesis of nickel cobalt oxide materials and their electrocatalytic performance toward the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions are reported. Nickel cobalt oxides were synthesized in a sol-gel process with different precursors, namely nitrate, sulfate, and chloride. Structural analyses show that the structures have mesoporous morphologies and indicate the formation of nickel cobalt oxide spinel structures with a size ranging from 35 to 65 nm. Furthermore, the physicochemical properties differ depending on the nature of the selected precursors, including the materials' morphology and the chemical composition. Electrocatalytic investigations demonstrate that the catalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) could be modulated between two- and four-electron pathways, depending on the precursors used. The Cl-NiCoO sample displays a selective two-electron reduction of O₂ , with H₂ O₂ production higher than 90 %. The sample prepared using sulfate displays the highest performance toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with a low overpotential value (0.34 V) to drive a current density of 10 mA.cm^-1 . Overall, these results confirm that the chemical composition of the precursor used during the nanomaterials synthesis can be used to tune the electrocatalytic performances toward ORR and OER.