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Nano Research 2024, 17(6): 5104-5113 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6404-5
Research Article | Issue | Published: 13 January 2024

Enhancing zinc–air battery performance by constructing three-dimensional N-doped carbon coating multiple valence Co and MnO heterostructures

Show Author's Information Qi Liu1,  Panzhe Qiao3,  Miaomiao Tong2,  Ying Xie2,  Xinxin Zhang2,  Kuo Lin1,  Zhijian Liang2,  Lei Wang2( ),  Honggang Fu1,2( )
Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150080, China
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, China
Keywords:
heterostructure, manganese oxide, synergy, valence cobalt, Zn–air battery
Topics:
Ion batteries
Cite this article:
Liu Q, Qiao P, Tong M, et al. Enhancing zinc–air battery performance by constructing three-dimensional N-doped carbon coating multiple valence Co and MnO heterostructures. Nano Research, 2024, 17(6): 5104-5113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6404-5
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Developing highly-efficient bifunctional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is crucial for the widespread application of rechargeable Zn–air batteries (ZABs). Herein, an efficiency electrodeposition and pyrolytic strategy to synthesize the three-dimensional (3D) N-doped carbon coating multiple valence Co and MnO heterostructures supported on carbon cloth substrate (Co-MnO@NC/CC). It contains Co–Co, Co–N, and Co–O bonds, which synergistically enhance the oxygen reaction activity with MnO. It exhibits a working potential of 1.473 V at 10 mA·cm−2 for OER and onset potential of 0.97 V for ORR. Theory calculations demonstrate that the synergy between cobalt and manganese species could optimize the d-band center and reduce the energy barrier of Co-MnO@NC/CC for both OER and ORR processes. Besides, the MnO acts as the main OER active site could significantly optimize the energy barrier of O* → OOH*, thus further promoting the OER activity. It can be directly used as the air-cathode for both liquid-state and solid-state ZABs, which could afford a small voltage gap of 0.75 V at 10 mA·cm−2, a high power density of 172.5 mW·cm−2 and a long-term durability for 400 h, surpassing those of the Pt/C + RuO2-based ZAB. Importantly, the assembled batteries show potential applications in portable devices.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Enhancing zinc–air battery performance by constructing three-dimensional N-doped carbon coating multiple valence Co and MnO heterostructures

Show Author's information Qi Liu1, Panzhe Qiao3, Miaomiao Tong2, Ying Xie2, Xinxin Zhang2, Kuo Lin1, Zhijian Liang2, Lei Wang2( ), Honggang Fu1,2( )
Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150080, China
Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201204, China

Abstract

Developing highly-efficient bifunctional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts is crucial for the widespread application of rechargeable Zn–air batteries (ZABs). Herein, an efficiency electrodeposition and pyrolytic strategy to synthesize the three-dimensional (3D) N-doped carbon coating multiple valence Co and MnO heterostructures supported on carbon cloth substrate (Co-MnO@NC/CC). It contains Co–Co, Co–N, and Co–O bonds, which synergistically enhance the oxygen reaction activity with MnO. It exhibits a working potential of 1.473 V at 10 mA·cm−2 for OER and onset potential of 0.97 V for ORR. Theory calculations demonstrate that the synergy between cobalt and manganese species could optimize the d-band center and reduce the energy barrier of Co-MnO@NC/CC for both OER and ORR processes. Besides, the MnO acts as the main OER active site could significantly optimize the energy barrier of O* → OOH*, thus further promoting the OER activity. It can be directly used as the air-cathode for both liquid-state and solid-state ZABs, which could afford a small voltage gap of 0.75 V at 10 mA·cm−2, a high power density of 172.5 mW·cm−2 and a long-term durability for 400 h, surpassing those of the Pt/C + RuO2-based ZAB. Importantly, the assembled batteries show potential applications in portable devices.

Keywords: heterostructure, manganese oxide, synergy, valence cobalt, Zn–air battery

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 16 November 2023
Revised: 06 November 2023
Accepted: 08 December 2023
Published: 13 January 2024
Issue date: June 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of this research by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U20A20250 and 22179034) and the Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province (No. ZD2023B002).

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