Facile one-step synthesis, structural, optical and electrochemical properties of NiCo2O4 nanostructures

Hexagonal and bundle like spinel nickel cobaltite nanostructures has been successfully prepared using two different precipitants such as oxalic acid and potassium hydroxide by facile one-step route followed by calcinated at 400 °C in air, and their structural, optical and electrochemical properties are proposed in this work. The optical band gap of these materials was estimated around 3.88 and 4.07 eV. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements reveal near band emission enhancement in both NiCo2O4 nanostructures. Then the synthesized samples were utilized for electrochemical performance to modify the glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The electrochemical tests reveal high specific capacitance 996 Fg−1 when oxalic acid was used as precipitant, which was nearly 2.1 times higher than that of KOH (precipitant). The enhanced electrochemical performance is due to the porous nature of nanostructures, which provides fast diffusion pathway to electronic and ionic transport on the NiCo2O4/GCE electrode and electrolyte interfaces. This research work confirms the as-prepared spinel NiCo2O4 which can serve as advanced electrode material for next generation supercapacitor device. Moreover, the magnetic measurement of these samples exhibits weak ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature with remanent magnetization Mr = 0.0005, and 0.0028 emu/g observed at coercivity field Hc = 12 kOe, which may be applicable in the field of magnetic storage device.