The catalysts are often used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries to speed up electrochemical reactions. In this study, we prepared CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with mainly inverse spinel structure and FeCo2O4 nanoparticles with mainly spinel structure as bifunctional catalysts by hydrothermal method. After annealing at 350 degrees C, pure CoFe2O4 and FeCo2O4 nanoparticles with uniform size distribution have been obtained. The CoFe2O4 nanoparticles showed high current density of 5.5 mA/cm(2) at -0.8 V in the ORR test. It's low Tafel slope of 83.0 mV/dec further confirmed the excellent ORR catalytic properties of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles. Furthermore, the CoFe2O4 nanoparticles also showed good OER properties with satisfied current density of 35.7 mV/cm(2) at l.0 V and low OER Tafel slope of 71.0 mV/dec. Both the ORR and OER properties of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles showed good time stability which were compared with FeCo2O4 nanoparticles. These results indicated that CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with mainly inverse spinel structure had better electrocatalytic performance than FeCo2O4 nanoparticles with mainly spinel structure. The CoFe2O4 nanoparticles with mainly inverse spinel structure show a significant potential application in rechargeable battery. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.