Title: MO-Co@N-Doped Carbon (M = Zn or Co): Vital Roles of Inactive Zn and Highly Efficient Activity toward Oxygen Reduction/Evolution Reactions for Rechargeable Zn-Air Battery

Abstract

A highly efficient bifunctional oxygen catalyst is required for practical applications of fuel cells and metal-air batteries, as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are their core electrode reactions. Here, the MO-Co@ N-doped carbon (NC, M = Zn or Co) is developed as a highly active ORR/OER bifunctional catalyst via pyrolysis of a bimetal metal-organic framework containing Zn and Co, i.e., precursor (CoZn). The vital roles of inactive Zn in developing highly active bifunctional oxygen catalysts are unraveled. When the precursors include Zn, the surface contents of pyridinic N for ORR and the surface contents of Co-N-x and Co3+/Co2+ ratios for OER are enhanced, while the high specific surface areas, high porosity, and high electrochemical active surface areas are also achieved. Furthermore, the synergistic effects between Zn-based and Co-based species can promote the well growth of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) at high pyrolysis temperatures (>= 700 degrees C), which is favorable for charge transfer. The optimized CoZn-NC-700 shows the highly bifunctional ORR/OER activity and the excellent durability during the ORR/OER processes, even better than 20 wt% Pt/C (for ORR) and IrO2 (for OER). CoZn-NC-700 also exhibits the prominent Zn-air battery performance and even outperforms the mixture ofmore » 20 wt% Pt/C and IrO2.« less

Authors:

Chen, Biaohua ^[1]; He, Xiaobo ^[2]; Yin, Fengxiang ^[3]; Wang, Hao ^[4]; Liu, Di-Jia ^[5]; Shi, Ruixing ^[6]; Chen, Jinnan ^[6]; Yin, Hongwei ^[6]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Environmental Catalysis, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China
2. Changzhou Institute of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Changzhou 213164 P. R. China
3. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Environmental Catalysis, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China; Changzhou Institute of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Changzhou 213164 P. R. China
4. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Environmental Catalysis, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China; Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL 60439 USA
5. Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL 60439 USA
6. State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029 P. R. China

Publication Date:

2017-06-14

Research Org.:

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

OSTI Identifier:

1411443

DOE Contract Number:  

AC02-06CH11357

Resource Type:

Journal Article

Journal Name:

Advanced Functional Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 27; Journal Issue: 37; Journal ID: ISSN 1616-301X

Publisher:

Wiley

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

25 ENERGY STORAGE