Compositional engineering of perovskite oxide BaCo0.5Fe0.5O3−δ as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for rechargeable zinc–air batteries

Abstract

Herein, a single-phase perovskite oxide BaCo_0.5Fe_0.5O_3−δ (R-BCF) electrocatalyst has been successfully prepared for efficient and robust rechargeable zinc–air battery (ZAB) application by adapting a rapid cooling treatment at 300 °C min⁻¹. Compared with the dual-phase electrocatalyst synthesized at a slow cooling rate of 3 °C min⁻¹, the R-BCF electrocatalyst shows effectively improved oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction bifunctional electrocatalytic activity as well as greatly enhanced peak output power density of 132 mW cm⁻² with an enhancement rate of 63%. Moreover, the R-BCF electrocatalyst-based ZAB demonstrates excellent electrocatalytic stability, and no obvious performance degradation is observed during the 210-hour operation with a total of 1260 charge–discharge cycles. These results indicate that the single-phase perovskite oxide R-BCF electrocatalyst is a potential bifunctional cathode alternative for efficient and stable ZAB application, and tuning the cooling rate can greatly manipulate the material composition for various energy storage and conversion devices.