Sawtooth-shaped nickel-based submicrowires and their electrocatalytic activity for methanol oxidation in alkaline media

•Sawtooth-shaped Ni and NiCo submicrowires were synthesized under a magnetic field.•Formation mechanism of sawtooth-shaped submicrowires was discussed.•Sawtooth-shaped submicrowires exhibited higher electrochemical property.•NiCo submicrowires showed higher electrocatalytic activity than Ni counterpart.

Sawtooth-shaped nickel and nickel-cobalt submicrowires were fabricated by hydrazine reduction of their salt precursors under magnetic field. The sawtooth-shaped submicrowires exhibited better electrochemical property in electrooxidation of methanol in alkaline media than nickel nanoparticles and smooth submicrowires because the sawtooth-shaped structure benefited more from both geometry of nanowires and nano-size effect. Therefore, the sawtooth-shaped nickel-based submicrowires synthesized in this work have the potential for use as a non-precious electrode catalyst for alkaline fuel cells.