Conductivity-enhanced porous N/P co-doped metal-free carbon significantly enhances oxygen reduction kinetics for aqueous/flexible zinc-air batteries

Chuan Hu; Qinrui Liang; Yuting Yang; Qiming Peng; Zuyang Luo; Jiaxin Dong; Tayirjan Taylor Isimjan; Xiulin Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.118

Conductivity-enhanced porous N/P co-doped metal-free carbon significantly enhances oxygen reduction kinetics for aqueous/flexible zinc-air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Mar:633:500-510. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.118. Epub 2022 Nov 28.

Authors

Chuan Hu¹, Qinrui Liang¹, Yuting Yang¹, Qiming Peng¹, Zuyang Luo¹, Jiaxin Dong², Tayirjan Taylor Isimjan³, Xiulin Yang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China. Electronic address: chemdjx@gxnu.edu.cn.
³ Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: isimjant@sabic.com.
⁴ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China. Electronic address: xlyang@gxnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 36463819
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.118

Abstract

Heteroatom-doped metal-free carbon catalysts for oxygen reduction reactions have gained significant attention because of their unusual activity and economic cost. Here, a novel N/P co-doped porous carbon catalyst (NPPC) with a high surface area for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is constructed by a facile high-temperature calcination method employing ZIF-8 as the precursor and red phosphorus as the phosphorus source. In particular, ZIF-8 is firstly calcined to obtain N-doped carbon (NC) followed by further calcination with red phosphorus to obtain NPPC. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) analysis shows that the ultra-low amount of P doping could significantly decrease the work function from 4.32 to 3.86 eV. The resultant catalyst exhibits a promising electrocatalytic activity with a half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.87 V and a limiting current density (J_L) of 5.15 mA cm^-2. Besides, it also shows improved catalytic efficiency and excellent durability with a negligible decay of J_L after 2000 CV cycles. Moreover, aqueous and solid-state flexible zinc-air batteries (ZAB) using the catalyst show a promising application potential. This work provides new insight into developing P/N-doped metal-free carbon ORR catalysts.

Keywords: Metal-free carbon; N/P co-doped; Oxygen reduction; Red phosphorus; Zinc-air battery.