Nitrogen, Fluorine, and Boron Ternary Doped Carbon Fibers as Cathode Electrocatalysts for Zinc-Air Batteries

Lei Wang; Yueqing Wang; Mingguang Wu; Zengxi Wei; Chunyu Cui; Minglei Mao; Jintao Zhang; Xiaopeng Han; Quanhui Liu; Jianmin Ma

doi:10.1002/smll.201800737

Nitrogen, Fluorine, and Boron Ternary Doped Carbon Fibers as Cathode Electrocatalysts for Zinc-Air Batteries

Small. 2018 May;14(20):e1800737. doi: 10.1002/smll.201800737. Epub 2018 Apr 17.

Authors

Lei Wang¹, Yueqing Wang², Mingguang Wu¹, Zengxi Wei¹, Chunyu Cui¹, Minglei Mao¹, Jintao Zhang², Xiaopeng Han³, Quanhui Liu¹, Jianmin Ma^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Micro-/Nano-Optoelectronic Devices of the Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, P. R. China.
² Key Laboratory for Colloid and Interface Chemistry of State Education Ministry, School of Chemistry and chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P. R. China.
³ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, P. R. China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, P. R. China.

PMID: 29665265
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201800737

Abstract

Zinc-air batteries with high-density energy are promising energy storage devices for the next generation of energy storage technologies. However, the battery performance is highly dependent on the efficiency of oxygen electrocatalyst in the air electrode. Herein, the N, F, and B ternary doped carbon fibers (TD-CFs) are prepared and exhibited higher catalytic properties via the efficient 4e^- transfer mechanism for oxygen reduction in comparison with the single nitrogen doped CFs. More importantly, the primary and rechargeable Zn-air batteries using TD-CFs as air-cathode catalysts are constructed. When compared to batteries with Pt/C + RuO₂ and Vulcan XC-72 carbon black catalysts, the TD-CFs catalyzed batteries exhibit remarkable battery reversibility and stability over long charging/discharging cycles.

Keywords: carbon nanofibers; electrocatalysis; oxygen evolution reaction; oxygen reduction reaction; zinc-air battery.