Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene Oxide Nanoribbon Supported Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles as High‐Performance Bifunctional Catalysts for Zinc–Air Battery

Abstract

Developing high‐performance, high‐stability, and low‐cost nonprecious metal catalysts to enhance the performance of zinc–air batteries (ZABs) holds significant importance. A bifunctional catalyst consisting of cobalt oxide (CoO) nanocrystals on nitrogen‐doped reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons (N‐rGONR) as a novel substrate is successfully synthesized in this work. This synthesized bifunctional catalyst exhibits mesoporous structure, and remarkable synergistic effects between CoO nanocrystals and N‐rGONR, demonstrating excellent activity and durability in both oxygen reduction reactions and oxygen evolution reactions. Notably, the resulting aqueous electrolyte ZABs show a high discharge peak power density of 196 mW cm−2, a high specific capacity of 615.9 mAh g−1, and long‐time stability for 648 h. Furthermore, the assembly of 1D and 2D flexible solid‐state ZABs fabricated using this bifunctional catalyst exhibits stable electrochemical performance, even under severe deformation. These results underscore the considerable promise of implementing the CoO@N‐rGONR catalyst structure in next‐generation advanced energy storage and conversion devices.

Keywords

• bifunctional catalysts
• cable‐type zinc–air batteries
• graphene oxide nanoribbons
• zinc–air batteries