Interface engineering Ni/Ni12P5@CNx Mott-Schottky heterojunction tailoring electrocatalytic pathways for zinc-air battery

Zhou Yang; Xinjie Xie; Jiamin Wei; Zhiqian Zhang; Chengbin Yu; Shuang Dong; Bingbing Chen; Ying Wang; Meng Xiang; Hengfei Qin

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.163

Interface engineering Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x Mott-Schottky heterojunction tailoring electrocatalytic pathways for zinc-air battery

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Jul 15:642:439-446. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.163. Epub 2023 Mar 29.

Authors

Zhou Yang¹, Xinjie Xie², Jiamin Wei², Zhiqian Zhang³, Chengbin Yu⁴, Shuang Dong⁵, Bingbing Chen⁶, Ying Wang⁷, Meng Xiang⁸, Hengfei Qin⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of chemistry and chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. Electronic address: zhouyang@jsut.edu.cn.
² Department of chemistry and chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China.
³ Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Flash Green Development and Recycling &Faculty of Materials Metallurgy and Chemistry, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, China.
⁴ Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
⁵ School of Chemical Engineering and Materials, Changzhou Institute of Technology, Changzhou 213032, China.
⁶ Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China.
⁷ Beijing Wuzong Wuheng Technology Co., LTD, Beijing 100045, China.
⁸ Department of chemistry and chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China. Electronic address: xiangmeng10@jsut.edu.cn.
⁹ Department of Resource and Environment, Jiangsu University of Technology & Key Laboratory of precious metal deep processing technology and application of Jiangsu Province, Changzhou 213001, China. Electronic address: jlgqinhf@jsut.edu.cn.

PMID: 37023515
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.03.163

Abstract

Due to the poor bifunctional electrocatalytic performances of electrocatalysts in zinc-air battery, herein, we first synthesized Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x Mott-Schottky heterojunction to ameliorate the high-cost and instability of precious metals. We modulated the different contents of Ni and Ni₁₂P₅ in the Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x Mott-Schottky heterojunction, and found that 0.6 Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x has outstanding electrocatalytic performances, with half-wave potential of 0.83 V, and OER potential of 1.49 V at 10 mA cm^-2. Also, the ΔE value is only 0.66 V. Moreover, 0.6 Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x is assembled into ZAB, which has a high power density of 181 mW cm^-2 and a high specific capacity of 710 mAh g^-1. This indicates it has a good cycle stability. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that electrons spontaneously flow from Ni to Ni₁₂P₅ through the formed buffer layer in the Ni/Ni₁₂P₅@CN_x Mott-Schottky heterojunction. The Schottky barrier formed modulates the electrocatalytic pathway to have good bifunctional electrocatalytic activity for ORR and OER.

Keywords: Mott-Schottky heterojunction; Ni/Ni(12)P(5); Tailoring pathway; Zinc-air battery.