FeCo/FeCoNi/N-doped carbon nanotubes grafted polyhedron-derived hybrid fibers as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for durable rechargeable zinc–air battery

By Zhe Wang, J. Ang, Bowei Zhang, Youfang Zhang, X. Ma, Tao Yan, Jian Liu, Boyang Che, Yizhong Huang, Xuehong Lu. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 2019

206 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The rational design and exploration of highly efficient, low-cost, and robust electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for development of rechargeable metal-air batteries. Herein, we report a novel approach for the synthesis of bifunctional electrocatalysts, where Fe0.5Co0.5 and Fe0.5Co0.4Ni0.1 alloys are encapsulated in the nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes-grafted porous polyhedron-derived hybrid fibers (FeCo/FeCoNi@NCNTs-HF). Benefiting from its hierarchically porous structure and strong synergetic coupling among FeCo, FeCoNi alloys, and N-doped carbon species. The obtained electrocatalyst exhibits a positive half-wave potential of 0.850 V for ORR and a low potential of 1.608 V to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for OER, as well as superior stability in alkaline media. As a demonstration, FeCo/FeCoNi@NCNTs-HF is employed as the electrocatalysts in the air cathode of a Zn-air battery, which shows superior discharge and charge performance, large power density, high specific capacity, and outstanding cycling stability of 240 h (360 cycles). More impressively, excellent cyclabilitiy with a lifetime of 670 h (1005 cycles) is also achieved by the Zn-air battery with FeCo/FeCoNi@NCNTs-HF as the self-supported air electrode. This work will open a novel avenue to develop advanced bifunctional electrocatalysts for the next generation of metal-air batteries.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e4713839dc175bcf94e83343bdfb3207e6faa623