Copper nanodot-embedded nitrogen and fluorine co-doped porous carbon nanofibers as advanced electrocatalysts for rechargeable zinc-air batteries

Gang Wang; Hongjing Gao; Zirui Yan; Lei Li; Quanxiang Li; Jie Fan; Yixia Zhao; Nanping Deng; Weimin Kang; Bowen Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.147

Copper nanodot-embedded nitrogen and fluorine co-doped porous carbon nanofibers as advanced electrocatalysts for rechargeable zinc-air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Oct:647:163-173. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.147. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Gang Wang¹, Hongjing Gao¹, Zirui Yan², Lei Li¹, Quanxiang Li³, Jie Fan¹, Yixia Zhao¹, Nanping Deng⁴, Weimin Kang⁵, Bowen Cheng⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China.
² School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China.
³ Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong and Waurn Ponds, Victoria 3216, Australia.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China. Electronic address: dengnanping@tiangong.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China. Electronic address: kangweimin@tiangong.edu.cn.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China; School of Material Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, PR China. Electronic address: bowen15@tiangong.edu.cn.

PMID: 37247480
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.147

Abstract

Porous carbon-based electrocatalysts for cathodes in zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are limited by their low catalytic activity and poor electronic conductivity, making it difficult for them to be quickly commercialized. To solve these problems of ZABs, copper nanodot-embedded N, F co-doped porous carbon nanofibers (CuNDs@NFPCNFs) are prepared to enhance the electronic conductivity and catalytic activity in this study. The CuNDs@NFPCNFs exhibit excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance based on experimental and density functional theory (DFT) simulation results. The copper nanodots (CuNDs) and N, F co-doped carbon nanofibers (NFPCNFs) synergistically enhance the electrocatalytic activity. The CuNDs in the NFPCNFs also enhance the electronic conductivity to facilitate electron transfer during the ORR. The open porous structure of the NFPCNFs promotes the fast diffusion of dissolved oxygen and the formation of abundant gas-liquid-solid interfaces, leading to enhanced ORR activity. Finally, the CuNDs@NFPCNFs show excellent ORR performance, maintaining 92.5% of the catalytic activity after a long-term ORR test of 20000 s. The CuNDs@NFPCNFs also demonstrate super stable charge-discharge cycling for over 400 h, a high specific capacity of 771.3 mAh g^-1 and an excellent power density of 204.9 mW cm^-2 as a cathode electrode in ZABs. This work is expected to provide reference and guidance for research on the mechanism of action of metal nanodot-enhanced carbon materials for ORR electrocatalyst design.

Keywords: Copper nanodots; DFT simulation calculation; Hierarchically porous structures; N, F co-doped carbon nanofibers; Zn-air secondary batteries.