FeCo/N-co-doped 3D carbon nanofibers as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries

Jiangbo Wang; Yanan Zhang; Xue Guo; Shiqin Liao; Pengfei Lv; Qufu Wei

doi:10.1039/d2nr05432a

FeCo/N-co-doped 3D carbon nanofibers as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries

Nanoscale. 2023 Jan 5;15(2):625-630. doi: 10.1039/d2nr05432a.

Authors

Jiangbo Wang¹, Yanan Zhang¹, Xue Guo¹, Shiqin Liao², Pengfei Lv¹, Qufu Wei^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Eco-Textiles, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu Province, PR China. qfwei@jiangnan.edu.cn.
² Jiangxi Center for Modern Apparel Engineering and Technology, Jiangxi Institute of Fashion Technology, Nanchang 330201, China.

PMID: 36504045
DOI: 10.1039/d2nr05432a

Abstract

Flexible zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are expected to become a promising candidate in energy storage equipment for wearable electronic devices. However, the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) have impeded the development of ZABs. Herein, an FeCo- and N-codoped bifunctional electrocatalyst (FeCoNCF) is fabricated by simple one-pot and pyrolysis strategies. Concretely, the bacterial cellulose (BC) and Prussian blue analogue (PBA) derived transition metal and nitrogen doped carbon (M-N-C) composites provide ORR and OER active sites. FeCoNCF exhibits outstanding ORR and OER activities. It displays a favorable high half-wave potential (0.81 V) and a low overpotential at 10 mA cm^-2 (341 mV), which are on a par with commercial Pt/C and RuO₂, and shows outstanding stability. The sandwich-type flexible zinc-air battery containing FeCoNCF shows a favorable power density (49.29 mW cm^-2) and superior cycling stability.