ZnS anchored on porous N, S-codoped carbon as superior oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries

Linfang Cui; Kun Xiang; Xiaomin Kang; Keke Zhi; Lei Wang; Jiujun Zhang; Xian-Zhu Fu; Jing-Li Luo

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2021.11.083

ZnS anchored on porous N, S-codoped carbon as superior oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Mar:609:868-877. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.11.083. Epub 2021 Nov 18.

Authors

Linfang Cui¹, Kun Xiang², Xiaomin Kang², Keke Zhi³, Lei Wang², Jiujun Zhang⁴, Xian-Zhu Fu⁵, Jing-Li Luo⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
³ China University of Petroleum-Beijing at Karamay, China.
⁴ Institute for Sustainable Energy, College of Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China.
⁵ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: xz.fu@szu.edu.cn.
⁶ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China. Electronic address: jingli.luo@ualberta.ca.

PMID: 34839920
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2021.11.083

Abstract

The development of non-precious based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts with outstanding catalytic performance is desirable but still a grand challenge for practical Al-air battery. Herein, we report a vulcanization-assisted pyrolysis strategy for creating zeolitic imidazolate framework-derived catalysts with a N, S co-doped carbon support and highly exposed ZnS and Zn-N_x sites. The trithiocyanuric acid (TCA) is found not only to introduce S into the carbon derived from ZIF-8 and ZnS to adjust the electronic structure of carbon matrix during the pyrolysis, but also result in a shrinkage of carbon framework with a hierarchical porous structure. Such an architecture boosts abundant active sites exposed and accelerates remote mass transportation. As a result, the optimized 3.5ZnS/NSC-NaCl-900 delivers an impressive enhanced performance toward ORR in alkaline medium with a high half-wave potential of 0.905 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode), which is superior to most of non-precious metal-based catalysts. Density functional theory calculations unveil that the ZnS in 3.5ZnS/NSC-NaCl-900 can effectively lower the Gibbs energy barrier of crucial steps and therefore promotes the reaction kinetics. Furthermore, 3.5ZnS/NSC-NaCl-900 also displays greater power density and specific capacity than Pt/C in Al-air batteries.

Keywords: Al-air battery; N,S-codoped porous carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction; Vulcanization; ZnS.