FeCo/FeCoP encapsulated in N, Mn-codoped three-dimensional fluffy porous carbon nanostructures as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst with multi-components synergistic catalysis for ultra-stable rechargeable Zn-air batteries

Yu-Ping Chen; Shi-Yi Lin; Rui-Min Sun; Ai-Jun Wang; Lu Zhang; Xiaohong Ma; Jiu-Ju Feng

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.07.082

FeCo/FeCoP encapsulated in N, Mn-codoped three-dimensional fluffy porous carbon nanostructures as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst with multi-components synergistic catalysis for ultra-stable rechargeable Zn-air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Jan:605:451-462. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.07.082. Epub 2021 Jul 23.

Authors

Yu-Ping Chen¹, Shi-Yi Lin¹, Rui-Min Sun¹, Ai-Jun Wang¹, Lu Zhang¹, Xiaohong Ma², Jiu-Ju Feng³

Affiliations

¹ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China. Electronic address: xhma@ipe.ac.cn.
³ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China. Electronic address: jjfeng@zjnu.cn.

PMID: 34340032
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.07.082

Abstract

Currently, it is critical but a tricky point to develop economical, high-efficiency, and durable non-precious metal electrocatalysts towards oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) in rechargeable Zn-air batteries. Herein, N, Mn-codoped three-dimensional (3D) fluffy porous carbon nanostructures encapsulating FeCo/FeCoP alloyed nanoparticles (FeCo/FeCoP@NMn-CNS) are prepared by one-step pyrolysis of the metal precursors and polyinosinic acid. The optimized hybrid nanocomposite (obtained at 800 °C, named as FeCo/FeCoP@NMn-CNS-800) exhibits outstanding catalytic performance in the alkaline electrolyte with a half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.84 V for the ORR and an overpotential of 325 mV towards the OER at 10 mA cm^-2. Impressively, the FeCo/FeCoP@NMn-CNS-800-assembled rechargeable Zn-air battery presents an open-circuit voltage of 1.522 V (vs. RHE), a peak power density of 135.0 mW cm^-2, and long-term durability by charge-discharge cycling for 200 h, surpassing commercial Pt/C + RuO₂ based counterpart. This work affords valuable guidelines for exploring advanced bifunctional ORR and OER catalysts in rational construction of high-quality Zn-air batteries.

Keywords: Bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst; Doped porous carbon; Multi-components; Polyinosinic acid; Rechargeable Zn-air batteries.