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Research Article

Hierarchical peony-like FeCo-NC with conductive network and highly active sites as efficient electrocatalyst for rechargeable Zn-air battery

Yiyan Wang1, Anuj Kumar3, Mang Ma1, Yin Jia3, Yu Wang1, Ying Zhang1, Guoxin Zhang2( ), Xiaoming Sun1, Zifeng Yan1( )
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
Department of Chemistry, Institute of Humanities and applied Science, GLA University, Mathura-281406, India
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Abstract

Carbon materials featuring hierarchical pores and atomically dispersed metal sites are promising catalysts for energy storage and conversion applications. Herein, we developed a facile strategy to construct functional carbon materials with a fluffy peony-like structure and dense binary FeCo-Nx active sites (termed as f-FeCo-CNT). By regulating the metal content in precursors, a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected conductive carbon nanotubes network was in-situ formed throughout the atomically dispersed FeCo-NC matrix during pyrolysis. Taking advantage of rich pore hierarchy and co-existence of highly active FeCo-Nx sites and beneficial FeCo alloy nanoparticles, the f-FeCo-CNT material exhibited excellent bifunctional performance towards oxygen reduction reaction/oxygen evolution reactions (ORR/OER) with respect to the atomically dispersed FeCo-NC (SA-f-FeCo-NC) and commercial Pt/C+RuO2 mixture, surpassing the SA-f-FeCo-NC with a 20 mV higher ORR half-wave potential and a 100 mV lower OER overpotential (at 10.0 mA/cm2). Remarkably, the f-FeCo-CNT-assembled Zn-air battery (ZAB) possessed a maximum specific power of 195.8 mW/cm2, excellent rate capability, and very good cycling stability at large current density of 20.0 mA/cm2. This work provides a facile and feasible synthetic strategy of constructing low-cost cathode materials with excellent comprehensive ZAB performance.

Keywords

atomically dispersed catalysthierarchical structurecarbon nanotubeoxygen electrocatalystrechargeable zinc-air battery

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 4,
April 2020
Pages 1090-1099
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2751-7
Cite this article:
Wang Y, Kumar A, Ma M, et al. Hierarchical peony-like FeCo-NC with conductive network and highly active sites as efficient electrocatalyst for rechargeable Zn-air battery. Nano Research, 2020, 13(4): 1090-1099. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2751-7
Topics:
Carbon nanotubesCathodesCobalt alloysElectrocatalystsElectrolytic reduction Oxygen reduction reaction Zinc air batteries

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Received: 25 December 2019
Revised: 09 February 2020
Accepted: 07 March 2020
Published: 14 April 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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