Niobium-doped conductive TiO-TiO2 heterostructure supported bifunctional catalyst for efficient and stable zinc-air batteries

Tongtao Wan; Hongyu Wang; Lanlan Wu; Changcheng Wu; Zisheng Zhang; Shuming Liu; Jing Fu; Jingde Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.145

Niobium-doped conductive TiO-TiO₂ heterostructure supported bifunctional catalyst for efficient and stable zinc-air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec:651:27-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.145. Epub 2023 Jul 24.

Authors

Tongtao Wan¹, Hongyu Wang¹, Lanlan Wu¹, Changcheng Wu¹, Zisheng Zhang², Shuming Liu³, Jing Fu⁴, Jingde Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Technology and Highly Efficient Energy Saving, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
² Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Technology and Highly Efficient Energy Saving, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada.
³ Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Technology and Highly Efficient Energy Saving, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. Electronic address: lsm9707@hebut.edu.cn.
⁴ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Development and Application for Metallic Functional Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China. Electronic address: jingfu@tongji.edu.cn.
⁵ Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Technology and Highly Efficient Energy Saving, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. Electronic address: jingdeli@hebut.edu.cn.

PMID: 37536257
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.145

Abstract

The development of highly active and durable nonprecious metal-based bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER) is important for rechargeable zinc-air batteries. Herein, a three-dimensional conductive niobium-doped TiO-TiO₂ heterostructure supported ZIF-67-derived Co-NC bifunctional catalyst was fabricated. In the Co-NC@Nb-TiO_x catalyst, the Nb doping promoted the formation of TiO-TiO₂ heterojunction support, enhanced its conductivity and stability and provided strong electron metal-support interaction between Co-NC and Nb-TiO_x. Also, the supported Co-NC nanoparticles provided abundant active sites with excellent ORR/OER activity. Experimental analysis reveals that the high OER activity of Co-NC@Nb-TiO_x can be attributed to the in-situ generated CoOOH species. It exhibits excellent ORR activity, as shown by its onset potential (0.95 V vs. RHE) and half-wave potential (0.86 V vs. RHE). Its OER overpotential at 10 mA cm^-2 is 480 mV. The zinc-air battery realizes outstanding cycling stability over 225 h cycles tested at 10 mA cm^-2. This work demonstrates the importance of designing highly stable metal oxide-supported catalysts in electrochemical energy conversion devices.

Keywords: Bifunctional catalyst; Heterostructure; Nb-doped; Zinc-air battery.