Stabilizing iron single atoms with electrospun hollow carbon nanofibers as self-standing air-electrodes for long-time Zn - air batteries

Huimin Liu; Chen Wang; Xinbo Ai; Binquan Wang; Yingqi Bian; Geyu Wang; Yongfei Wang; Zhizhi Hu; Zhiqiang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.007

Stabilizing iron single atoms with electrospun hollow carbon nanofibers as self-standing air-electrodes for long-time Zn - air batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec:651:525-533. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.007. Epub 2023 Aug 3.

Authors

Huimin Liu¹, Chen Wang¹, Xinbo Ai², Binquan Wang², Yingqi Bian², Geyu Wang², Yongfei Wang³, Zhizhi Hu¹, Zhiqiang Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning 185 Qianshan Zhong Road, Anshan 114051, PR China.
² School of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning Anshan, Liaoning 114051, PR China.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning 185 Qianshan Zhong Road, Anshan 114051, PR China; School of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning Anshan, Liaoning 114051, PR China. Electronic address: wyf8307@ustl.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Chemical Engineering, University of Science and Technology Liaoning 185 Qianshan Zhong Road, Anshan 114051, PR China. Electronic address: zzq@ustl.edu.cn.

PMID: 37556909
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.007

Abstract

Developing iron-based single-atom catalysts (Fe SACs) with low cost, high activity and stability is vital for commercialising sustainable energy technologies. However, accurately controlling and identifying structure-activity relationships of Fe SACs remains a significant challenge. Herein, we report Fe/N co-doped carbon nanofiber membranes with highly exposed Fe-N₄ sites (Fe/NCNFs), synthesized by electrospinning and pyrolysis. The three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical structure and atomically dispersed pyrrole-type Fe (III)-N₄ active sites provide the as-prepared catalyst with a positive half-wave potential of 0.87 V and an ultralow Tafel slope of 53 mV dec^-1. As an air cathode catalyst for liquid Zn - air batteries, it delivers a high open-circuit voltage (1.474 V), a large peak power density (190 mW cm^-2) and a high durability of 2000 cycles at 5 mA cm^-2. As a self-standing air cathode, the as-assembled solid-state Zn - air batteries also show stable cycling with a small discharge/charge voltage gap of 0.65 V, indicating great prospects for developing portable zinc - air batteries.

Keywords: Electrospinning; Self-standing electrode; Single atom catalysts; Zinc−air batteries.