Ultrasonic‑assisted synthesis of NiCo2O4/ TiO2 ceramic as an efficient and novel hydrogen storage material

Abstract

The present research reports the synthesize of NiCo2O4 nanoparticles and NiCo2O4/ TiO2 nanocomposite by an easy and quick sonochemical method using Ni(acac)2 as Ni2+ precursor. For the first time, the electrochemical hydrogen storage performances of the NiCo2O4 and NiCo2O4/ TiO2 nanocomposite in 6 M KOH aqueous medium under 1 mA current were considered using the galvanostatic charge–discharge method. Also, hydrogen storage capacity of NiCo2O4/ TiO2 nanocomposites and NiCo2O4 nanostructures was compared. Results indicated that NiCo2O4/ TiO2 nanocomposites have much better discharge capacity than the NiCo2O4 nanostructures. In fact, adding TiO2 to NiCo2O4 led to increase discharge capacity to 2500 mAh/g after 10 cycles. This prepared composite could be considered as a new, low-cost, environmental friendliness and efficient material for hydrogen storage. Moreover, NiCo2O4 nanoparticles prepared by using Ni(CH3CO2)2 showed maximum magnetization value of 2 emu/g at 15,000 Oe, while nanoparticles prepared by using Ni(acac)2 displayed maximum magnetization value of 0.7 emu/g at 15,000 Oe. The different analyses such as XRD, VSM, FT-IR, CV, SEM, TEM and EDS were used to investigate of phase, purity, chemical composition, size and morphology of prepared samples.