Competitive Coordination-Oriented Monodispersed Cobalt Sites on a N-Rich Porous Carbon Microsphere Catalyst for High-Performance Zn−Air Batteries
Mengxia Shen,
Hao Yang,
Qingqing Liu,
Qianyu Wang,
Jun Liu,
Jiale Qi,
Xinyu Xu,
Jiahua Zhu,
Lilong Zhang,
Yonghao Ni
Affiliations
Mengxia Shen
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Hao Yang
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Qingqing Liu
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Qianyu Wang
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Jun Liu
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Jiale Qi
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Xinyu Xu
College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Key Laboratory of Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology for Chemical Industry, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Collaborative Innovation Center of Industrial Auxiliary Chemistry and Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
Jiahua Zhu
State Key Laboratory of Material-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Lilong Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Material-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Yonghao Ni
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB E3B 5A3, Canada
Metal/nitrogen-doped carbon single-atom catalysts (M−N−C SACs) show excellent catalytic performance with a maximum atom utilization and customizable tunable electronic structure. However, precisely modulating the M−Nx coordination in M−N−C SACs remains a grand challenge. Here, we used a N-rich nucleobase coordination self-assembly strategy to precisely regulate the dispersion of metal atoms by controlling the metal ratio. Meanwhile, the elimination of Zn during pyrolysis produced porous carbon microspheres with a specific surface area of up to 1151 m2 g−1, allowing maximum exposure of Co−N4 sites and facilitating charge transport in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process. Thereby, the monodispersed cobalt sites (Co−N4) in N-rich (18.49 at%) porous carbon microspheres (CoSA/N−PCMS) displayed excellent ORR activity under alkaline conditions. Simultaneously, the Zn−air battery (ZAB) assembled with CoSA/N−PCMS outperformed Pt/C+RuO2-based ZABs in terms of power density and capacity, proving that they have good prospects for practical application.
