High-efficiency oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries on CoMn alloy encapsulated in N-doped carbon architectures
Wenshu Zhou,
Yanyan Liu,
Dichao Wu,
Shuling Liu,
Pengxiang Zhang,
Gaoyue Zhang,
Kang Sun,
Jianchun Jiang
Affiliations
Wenshu Zhou
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
Yanyan Liu
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
Dichao Wu
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
Shuling Liu
College of Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Pengxiang Zhang
College of Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Gaoyue Zhang
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
Kang Sun
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
Jianchun Jiang
Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products, Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF), National Engineering Laboratory for Biomass Chemical Utilization, Key and Open Laboratory of Forest Chemical Engineering, SFA, Nanjing 210042, Jiangsu Province, China
A low-cost efficient electrocatalyst for both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is urgently required for the commercialization of Zn-air batteries. Herein, CoMn nanoalloys encapsulated in nitrogen-doped hollow carbon architectures (CoMn@NHC) as dual electrocatalysts for Zn-air batteries were developed successfully. The obtained CoMn@NHC nanohybrid expresses excellent electrocatalytic performances for ORR (E1/2 = 0.87 V) and OER (Ei=10 = 1.51 V). More encouragingly, a homemade aqueous Zn-air battery using CoMn@NHC catalyst delivers a larger peak power density of 92.3 mW cm−2 and excellent stability of nearly 300 h, outperforming the commercial Pt/C + RuO2. The remarkable electrocatalytic performances are owing to the unique microstructure and the synergistic effect between CoMn alloy and N-doped carbon substrate. This study opens a new way for designing high-efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for application in renewable energy facilities.
