Electrospun cobalt Prussian blue analogue-derived nanofibers for oxygen reduction reaction and lithium-ion batteries

Dingding Meng; Chi Zhang; Yi Liang; Weiye Qiu; Fanping Kong; Xin He; Mei Chen; Ping Liang; Zhonghua Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.102

Electrospun cobalt Prussian blue analogue-derived nanofibers for oxygen reduction reaction and lithium-ion batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 Oct:599:280-290. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.102. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Authors

Dingding Meng¹, Chi Zhang¹, Yi Liang¹, Weiye Qiu¹, Fanping Kong¹, Xin He¹, Mei Chen¹, Ping Liang², Zhonghua Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ School of Applied Physics and Materials, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China.
² School of Applied Physics and Materials, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China. Electronic address: ping_liang@126.com.
³ School of Applied Physics and Materials, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China; Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China. Electronic address: zh_zhang@sdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33945975
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.04.102

Abstract

Electrospinning is an effective technique to fabricate one-dimensional materials. In this study, cobalt-embedded carbon nanofibers (Co@CNFs) are obtained via carbonization of electrospun cobalt Prussian blue analogue (Co-Co PBA) under nitrogen atmosphere. The Co@CNFs have metallic cobalt surrounded by graphitic carbon shells and possess high specific surface area, rich porosity, high graphitic degree, and rational nitrogen doping. The structure merits endow them with excellent electrocatalytic performances for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR): an onset potential of 0.867 V vs. RHE and 0.784 V vs. RHE at j = - 3 mA cm^-2 with a four-electron transfer process. Through a further mild oxidation process, we obtain Co₃O₄ nanoparticles-embedded nitrogen-doped carbon (Co₃O₄@CNFs) with spindle-like morphology. When working as the anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), Co₃O₄@CNFs show high specific capacity, good stability, and excellent rate capability. The Co₃O₄@CNFs anode delivers a discharge specific capacity of 1404 mA h g^-1 after 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g^-1 and about 500 mA h g^-1 after 500 cycles at 2000 mA g^-1. The diffusion- and capacitive-controlled processes both contribute to the charge storage of the Co₃O₄@CNFs electrode. This study provides a new strategy to fabricate the excellent electrocatalysts for ORR and anode materials for LIBs via facile electrospinning.

Keywords: Electrocatalysis; Electrospinning; Energy storage; One-dimensional nanomaterials; Prussian blue analogue.