Oxygen Electrocatalysis with Mesoporous Co−N−C Catalysts: Towards Understanding the Active Site and Development of Rechargeable Zn‐Air Batteries

Single-Atomic Co-N4 Sites with CrCo Nanoparticles for Metal-Air Battery-Driven Hydrogen Evolution

Designing highly active and robust earth abundant trifunctional electrocatalysts for energy storage and conversion applications remain an enormous challenge. Herein, we report a trifunctional electrocatalyst (CrCo/CoN4@CNT-5), synthesized at low calcination temperature (550 °C), which consists of Co-N4 single atom and CrCo alloy nanoparticles and exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and oxygen reduction reaction. The catalyst is able to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm-2 in an alkaline electrolytic cell at a very low cell voltage of ∼1.60 V. When the catalyst is equipped in a liquid rechargeable Zn-air battery, it endowed a high open-circuit voltage with excellent cycling durability and outperformed the commercial Pt/C+IrO2 catalytic system. Furthermore, the Zn-air battery powered self-driven water splitting system is displayed using CrCo/CoN4@CNT-5 as sole trifunctional catalyst, delivering a high H2 evolution rate of 168 μmol h-1. Theoretical calculations reveal synergistic interaction between Co-N4 active sites and CrCo nanoparticles, favoring the Gibbs free energy for H2 evolution. The presence of Cr not only enhances the H2O adsorption and dissociation but also tunes the electronic property of CrCo nanoparticles to provide optimized hydrogen binding capacity to Co-N4 sites, thus giving rise to accelerated H2 evolution kinetics. This work highlights the importance of the presence of small quantity of Cr in enhancing the electrocatalytic activity as well as robustness of single-atom catalyst and suggests the design of the multifunctional robust electrocatalysts for long-term H2 evolution application.

Low-temperature molten salt synthesis and catalytic mechanism of CoS2/NC as an advanced bifunctional electrocatalyst

The development of productive and sustainable bifunctional electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays an important role in the commercial evolution of metal-air batteries. In this paper, a low-temperature molten salt template method was adopted to synthesize the composite of CoS₂ and nitrogen-doped carbon (CoS₂/NC) without the protection of inert gas. The structural characterization studies show that the specific surface area (SSA) and crystal growth kinetics are increased and effectively improved, respectively, by the composite of CoS₂ and NC. The as-synthesized CoS₂/NC composite demonstrates outstanding bifunctional catalytic activity in alkaline electrolytes and exhibits a half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.854 V (vs. RHE) and an overpotential of only 220 mV for the OER at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 (η₁₀). Simultaneously, CoS₂/NC also exhibits excellent electrochemical stability. Additionally, density functional theory (DFT) calculations have manifested that the synergistic effect of CoS₂ and NC results in a remarkable enhancement in the bifunctional catalytic performance of the composite materials. This study offers a new pathway and theoretical guidance for the fabrication of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts.

Advanced Oxygen Electrocatalyst for Air-Breathing Electrode in Zn-Air Batteries

The electrochemical reduction of oxygen to water and the evolution of oxygen from water are two important electrode reactions extensively studied for the development of electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies based on oxygen electrocatalysis. The development of an inexpensive, highly active, and durable nonprecious-metal-based oxygen electrocatalyst is indispensable for emerging energy technologies, including anion exchange membrane fuel cells, metal-air batteries (MABs), water electrolyzers, etc. The activity of an oxygen electrocatalyst largely decides the overall energy storage performance of these devices. Although the catalytic activities of Pt and Ru/Ir-based catalysts toward an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are known, the high cost and lack of durability limit their extensive use for practical applications. This review article highlights the oxygen electrocatalytic activity of the emerging non-Pt and non-Ru/Ir oxygen electrocatalysts including transition-metal-based random alloys, intermetallics, metal-coordinated nitrogen-doped carbon (M-N-C), and transition metal phosphides, nitrides, etc., for the development of an air-breathing electrode for aqueous primary and secondary zinc-air batteries (ZABs). Rational surface and chemical engineering of these electrocatalysts is required to achieve the desired oxygen electrocatalytic activity. The surface engineering increases the number of active sites, whereas the chemical engineering enhances the intrinsic activity of the catalyst. The encapsulation or integration of the active catalyst with undoped or heteroatom-doped carbon nanostructures affords an enhanced durability to the active catalyst. In many cases, the synergistic effect between the heteroatom-doped carbon matrix and the active catalyst plays an important role in controlling the catalytic activity. The ORR activity of these catalysts is evaluated in terms of onset potential, number of electrons transferred, limiting current density, and durability. The bifunctional oxygen electrocatalytic activity and ZAB performance, on the other hand, are measured in terms of potential gap between the ORR and OER, ΔE = E_j10^OER - E_1/2^ORR, specific capacity, peak power density, open circuit voltage, voltaic efficiency, and charge-discharge cycling stability. The nonprecious metal electrocatalyst-based ZABs are very promising and they deliver high power density, specific capacity, and round-trip efficiency. The active site for oxygen electrocatalysis and challenges associated with carbon support is briefly addressed. Despite the considerable progress made with the emerging electrocatalysts in recent years, several issues are yet to be addressed to achieve the commercial potential of rechargeable ZAB for practical applications.