Boosting oxygen reduction activity with low-temperature derived high-loading atomic cobalt on nitrogen-doped graphene for efficient Zn–air batteries

High-loading atomic cobalt (12.8 wt%) dispersed on nitrogen-doped graphene was successfully synthesized via considerably low temperature pyrolysis. The catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance towards the oxygen reduction reaction with a large limiting diffusion current density of 5.60 mA cm⁻² (10% higher than that of commercial Pt/C), and when acting as the air catalyst of Zn–air batteries, a high open-circuit voltage of >1.40 V and excellent power density are also achieved.