Co/nitrogen-doped carbon nanocomposite derived from self-assembled metallogels as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries

• Published in: Applied surface science 2021-01, Vol.537, p.147818, Article 147818
• Main Authors: Shang, Ningzhao, Li, Shangyang, Zhou, Xin, Gao, Shutao, Gao, Yongjun, Wang, Chun, Wu, Qiuhua, Wang, Zhi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: All-solid-state zinc-air battery; Bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst; Cobalt implanted N-doped porous carbon; Metallogels; Self-assembly
• ISSN: 0169-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2020.147818

[Display omitted] •A coordination induced self-assemble strategy is developed for the fabrication of CoNC-MOG-9 nanomaterial.•CoNC-MOG-9 composite has three-dimensional hierarchically porous structure.•CoNC-MOG-9 electrodes have excellent ORR/OER catalytic performance.•The all-solid-state zinc-air battery based on the CoNC-MOG-9 catalyst exhibits a good performance. Rational design and exploration of highly efficient nonprecious metal-based bifunctional electrocatalysts are vital for metal-air batteries. Herein, a folic acid based metal–organic gels (MOG) is synthesized based on coordination induced self-assemble strategy, which affords well-defined dispersion cobalt implanted into N-doped porous carbon (CoNC-MOG-x) via pyrolysis. The as-obtained CoNC-MOG-x possesses well distributed Co nanoparticles and larger accessible surface areas than the CoNC without self-assemble process. Taking advantage of the unique structure, the CoNC-MOG-9 exhibits good oxygen reduction reaction activity, and the half-wave potentials for oxygen reduction reaction is 0.815 V. In addition, it also displays high oxygen evolution reaction activity with overpotential of 0.40 V at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 76 mV dec-1. Furthermore, integrated CoNC-MOG-9 cathode in an all-solid-state zinc-air battery exhibits a high specific power of 63 mW cm−2 as well as excellent stability and durability.