Carbon-based 0D/1D/2D assembly with desired structures and defect states as non-metal bifunctional electrocatalyst for zinc-air battery

Bingnan Wang; Ping Zhao; Jianguang Feng; Di Chen; Yan Huang; Lina Sui; Hongzhou Dong; Shuai Ma; Lifeng Dong; Liyan Yu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.051

Carbon-based 0D/1D/2D assembly with desired structures and defect states as non-metal bifunctional electrocatalyst for zinc-air battery

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Apr 15:588:184-195. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.051. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Authors

Bingnan Wang¹, Ping Zhao¹, Jianguang Feng¹, Di Chen², Yan Huang¹, Lina Sui¹, Hongzhou Dong¹, Shuai Ma³, Lifeng Dong¹, Liyan Yu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, PR China.
² Shandong Peninsula Engineering Research Center of Comprehensive Brine Utilization, Weifang University of Science and Technology, Shouguang 262700, PR China.
³ School of Mathematics and Physics, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, PR China.
⁴ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, PR China. Electronic address: liyanyu@qust.edu.cn.

PMID: 33387820
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.051

Abstract

For the design of electrocatalysts, the combination between components and the regulation of material structures tend to be neglected, giving rise to the constraint of catalytic performance and durability. Herein, we developed a graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQDs) with enhanced oxygen content by a one-step cutting method. Then, one-dimensional (1D) carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional (2D) reduced graphene oxide are crosslinked and self-assembled, thus attracting unsaturated-bond-riches GOODs (0D) to uniformly attach to the skeleton, simultaneously achieving nitrogen and sulfur co-doping. To the best of our knowledge, there is no report to prepare bifunctional electrocatalyst with GOQDs. Electrochemical tests show that even without metal-doping, the novel non-metal bifunctional electrocatalyst (N,S-GOQD-RGO/CNT) exhibits a higher half-wave potential (0.84 V) and enhanced limiting current density (5.88 mA cm^-2) than commercial Pt/C catalyst. The density functional theory is implemented to reveal the coordination of nitrogen and sulfur co-doping on GOQDs, which results in the improvement of overall catalytic active sites. Furthermore, the rechargeable zinc-air battery based on N,S-GOQD-RGO/CNT exhibits a maximum power density of 134.3 mW cm^-2, open circuit potential of 1.414 V, which is better than Pt/C+Ru/C mixed material. The obtained N,S-GOQD-RGO/CNT will provide a perspective application in fuel cells.

Keywords: 3D structure; Bifunctional catalysts; Graphene oxide quantum dots; Non-metal; Zinc-air battery.