Issue 3, 2023

High-performance zinc–air batteries enabled by hybridizing atomically dispersed FeN2 with Co3O4 nanoparticles

Abstract

The development of rechargeable Zn–air batteries is greatly limited by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Here we rationally design a high-performance ORR/OER hybrid catalyst by hybridizing a hierarchically porous atomically dispersed FeN2 catalyst with uniform Co3O4 nanoparticles. Such a catalyst exhibits superior bifunctional activity towards the ORR and OER with a half-wave potential of 0.886 V (vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE) and an overpotential of 0.227 V at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.1 M KOH compared to those of Pt/C and RuO2/C benchmark catalysts. The resulting Zn–air batteries can deliver an ultrahigh peak power density of 236 mW cm−2 and a long discharge–charge cycle of over 165 h at 5 mA cm−2. The density functional theory calculations reveal that the FeN2 active sites significantly improve the ORR and OER catalytic activities simultaneously. The results indicate that the hybrid catalyst can effectively enhance the performance of zinc–air batteries toward practical application.

Graphical abstract: High-performance zinc–air batteries enabled by hybridizing atomically dispersed FeN2 with Co3O4 nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Oct 2022
Accepted
05 Dec 2022
First published
07 Dec 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023,11, 1312-1323

High-performance zinc–air batteries enabled by hybridizing atomically dispersed FeN2 with Co3O4 nanoparticles

F. Gui, Q. Jin, D. Xiao, Z. Jin, Y. Zhang, Y. Cao, M. Yang, Q. Tan, C. Zhang, S. Siahrostami and Q. Xiao, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2023, 11, 1312 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA08305A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements