Nickel-copper oxide nanoflowers for highly efficient glucose electrooxidation

The development of highly active and low-cost electrocatalysts with excellent durability is a major challenge for glucose catalysis. Here, we report a fast and low-cost electrodeposition method for preparing a new NiCuO flower-like nanostructure with non-noble metals. The new NiCuO catalyst shows significant efficiency for glucose electrooxidation, which reaches an oxidative peak mass activity of 376.80 A g−1 and retains 66% of the original current over 10,000 s in a stability test by chronoamperometry. We credit the excellent glucose oxidation activity and outstanding stability to the combination of non-noble metal materials and the flower-like nanostructures of the NiCuO/ITO electrode, which results in large electrochemically active surface areas (ECSAs) of 85.9 m2 g−1 and fast charge transfer as measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). This new NiCuO nanoflower catalyst provides a new functional material for the building of glucose fuel cells and other electrochemical devices.