The NiCo2O4 nanorods were prepared by a hydrothermal method with nickel nitrate hexahydrate (Ni(NO3)2·6H2O) as the nickel source,cobalt nitrate hexahydrate (Co(NO3)2·6H2O) as the cobalt source,and urea as the precipitant.Then the above NiCo2O4 nanorods were immersed into the RuCl3 solution to obtain the NiCo2O4/Ru composite catalyst by reduction.Testing technologies such as X?ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were adopted to characterize the phase structure and morphology of this composite catalyst, and its catalytic performance toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was investigated by electrochemical methods such as linear scan voltammogram (LSV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Moreover, the NiCo2O4/Ru composite catalyst was used as the anode to assemble the Zn?air battery, whose open circuit voltage,charge and discharge performance,and cycle stability were evaluated by a LANHE test system. The results show that the NiCo2O4/Ru composite catalyst has high ORR/OER bifunctional catalytic activity with an OER overpotential of 420 mV at 10.0 mA/cm2 and an ORR half?wave potential of 0.77 V.The assembled Zn?air battery also exhibits an open circuit voltage of 1.37 V, a maximum power density of 143 mW/cm2,as well as robust cycle stability for 50 hours.