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Nano Research 2024, 17(5): 4118-4124 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6332-4
Research Article | Issue | Published: 12 December 2023

Correlative Mn-Co catalyst excels Pt in oxygen reduction reaction of quasi-solid-state zinc-air batteries

Show Author's Information Tingting Wang1,  Jincheng Huang1,  Wei Sang2,  Cai Zhou1,  Bohan Zhang1,  Wei Zhu1,  Kang Du1,  Zongkui Kou2( ),  Shengxiang Wang1( )
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Keywords:
synergistic effect, zinc-air battery, quasi-solid-state, non-noble metal catalysts
Topics:
Zinc air batteries
Cite this article:
Wang T, Huang J, Sang W, et al. Correlative Mn-Co catalyst excels Pt in oxygen reduction reaction of quasi-solid-state zinc-air batteries. Nano Research, 2024, 17(5): 4118-4124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-6332-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Zn-air batteries (ZABs) as a class of promising energy storage setups are generally powered by efficient and robust catalysts at the oxygen-involving cathode. Although the existing non-noble catalysts have outperformed noble Pt benchmark in the alkaline liquid-state ZABs, to the best of our knowledge few have excelled Pt in quasi-solid-state (QSS) ZABs. Herein, we found that an integrated Mn-Co cathode derived from the bimetallic Mn/Co metal organic frameworks generates a 1.4-fold greater power density in the QSS ZABs than a Pt cathode while its power density in liquid-state ZABs is only 0.8-fold of the latter. Moreover, such Mn-Co catalyst delivers high-rate oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) capability with half-wave potential of 0.84 V. The in-depth characterizations and analyses have demonstrated that the Co and Mn species show the specific affinity towards H2O and O2, respectively, synergizing the ORR process in the water-deficient environment of QSS ZABs. This work has enlightened the rational design of non-noble metal catalysts to improve the power density of QSS ZABs.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Correlative Mn-Co catalyst excels Pt in oxygen reduction reaction of quasi-solid-state zinc-air batteries

Show Author's information Tingting Wang1, Jincheng Huang1, Wei Sang2, Cai Zhou1, Bohan Zhang1, Wei Zhu1, Kang Du1, Zongkui Kou2( ), Shengxiang Wang1( )
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan 430200, China
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Abstract

Zn-air batteries (ZABs) as a class of promising energy storage setups are generally powered by efficient and robust catalysts at the oxygen-involving cathode. Although the existing non-noble catalysts have outperformed noble Pt benchmark in the alkaline liquid-state ZABs, to the best of our knowledge few have excelled Pt in quasi-solid-state (QSS) ZABs. Herein, we found that an integrated Mn-Co cathode derived from the bimetallic Mn/Co metal organic frameworks generates a 1.4-fold greater power density in the QSS ZABs than a Pt cathode while its power density in liquid-state ZABs is only 0.8-fold of the latter. Moreover, such Mn-Co catalyst delivers high-rate oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) capability with half-wave potential of 0.84 V. The in-depth characterizations and analyses have demonstrated that the Co and Mn species show the specific affinity towards H2O and O2, respectively, synergizing the ORR process in the water-deficient environment of QSS ZABs. This work has enlightened the rational design of non-noble metal catalysts to improve the power density of QSS ZABs.

Keywords: synergistic effect, zinc-air battery, quasi-solid-state, non-noble metal catalysts

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 October 2023
Revised: 08 November 2023
Accepted: 12 November 2023
Published: 12 December 2023
Issue date: May 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Z. K. K. acknowledges the financial support of the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 40120631) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52202291) for the support.

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