In-situ growth of cobalt manganate spinel nanodots on carbon black toward high-performance zinc-air battery: Dual functions of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane

Ruge Zhao; Luming Wu; Rui Chen; Pingchuan Sun; Tiehong Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.09.151

In-situ growth of cobalt manganate spinel nanodots on carbon black toward high-performance zinc-air battery: Dual functions of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Feb 15;608(Pt 1):386-395. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.09.151. Epub 2021 Sep 27.

Authors

Ruge Zhao¹, Luming Wu¹, Rui Chen¹, Pingchuan Sun², Tiehong Chen³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of New Catalytic Materials Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (MOE), Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, PR China.
² Key Laboratory of Functional Polymer Materials (MOE), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, PR China.
³ Institute of New Catalytic Materials Science, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (MOE), Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, PR China. Electronic address: chenth@nankai.edu.cn.

PMID: 34626984
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.09.151

Abstract

Developing cost-effective and stable non-noble electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is now the critical issue for large-scale application of zinc-air batteries. Here, we presented a simple method to synthesize highly dispersed cobalt manganate spinel nanodots in-situ embedded in amine-functionalized carbon black. Silane coupling agent 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) played dual roles in the preparation: (1) to achieve amine-functionalization of carbon support; (2) as weak alkali to precipitate metal hydroxides which were then converted to spinel nanodots after mild calcination. The hydrophilicity of the carbon substrate was enhanced by amine modification from APTES to disperse metal oxide evenly, and the electrochemical activity was promoted through the strong interface interaction between embedded spinel nanodots and carbon substrate during the calcination process. As expected, the CoMn₂O₄/C-NH₂-300 catalyst exhibited satisfactory bifunctional catalytic performance for both ORR and OER with an ΔE (E_1/2-E_j10) = 0.75 V, which was lower than most state-of-the-art catalysts. In addition, CoMn₂O₄/C-NH₂-300 as a cathode also exhibited remarkable zinc-air battery performance in alkaline solution. This strategy of APTES as a bifunctional coupling agent provided a novel way to design and explore highly active, durable, and cost-effective catalysts for renewable energy conversion and storage.

Keywords: 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane; Bifunctional electrocatalyst; Oxygen evolution reaction; Oxygen reduction reaction; Spinel; Zinc-air battery.