Nitrogen-doped porous carbon encapsulates multivalent cobalt-nickel as oxygen reduction reaction catalyst for zinc-air battery

Quan Zhou; Song Miao; Tong Xue; Yipu Liu; Hua Li; Xiang-Hui Yan; Zhong-Li Zou; Bei-Ping Wang; You-Jun Lu; Feng-Lan Han

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.164

Nitrogen-doped porous carbon encapsulates multivalent cobalt-nickel as oxygen reduction reaction catalyst for zinc-air battery

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Oct 15:648:511-519. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.164. Epub 2023 May 30.

Authors

Quan Zhou¹, Song Miao¹, Tong Xue², Yipu Liu³, Hua Li⁴, Xiang-Hui Yan¹, Zhong-Li Zou¹, Bei-Ping Wang¹, You-Jun Lu¹, Feng-Lan Han¹

Affiliations

¹ National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Advanced Carbon Based Ceramics Preparation Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center for High Value Utilization of Industrial By-products, School of Materials Science and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan 750021, PR China.
² National and Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Advanced Carbon Based Ceramics Preparation Technology, Collaborative Innovation Center for High Value Utilization of Industrial By-products, School of Materials Science and Engineering, North Minzu University, Yinchuan 750021, PR China. Electronic address: tong_xue@nun.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Marine Resource Utilization in South China Sea, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, PR China. Electronic address: lyp1992lyp@163.com.
⁴ School of Materials and Energy, Electron Microscopy Centre, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China. Electronic address: huali@lzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37307607
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.164

Abstract

In this study, we present a bimetallic ion coexistence encapsulation strategy employing hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a mediator to anchor cobalt-nickel (CoNi) bimetals in nitrogen-doped porous carbon cubic nanoboxes (CoNi@NC). The fully encapsulated and uniformly dispersed CoNi nanoparticles with the improved density of active sites help to accelerate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics and provide an efficient charge/mass transport environment. Zinc-air battery (ZAB) equipped CoNi@NC as cathode exhibits an open-circuit voltage of 1.45 V, a specific capacity of 870.0 mAh g^-1, and a power density of 168.8 mW cm^-2. Moreover, the two CoNi@NC-based ZABs in series display a stable discharge specific capacity of 783.0 mAh g^-1, as well as a large peak power density of 387.9 mW cm^-2. This work provides an effective way to tune the dispersion of nanoparticles to boost active sites in nitrogen-doped carbon structure, and enhance the ORR activity of bimetallic catalysts.

Keywords: CoNi bimetals; Metal–organic framework; N-doped carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction; Zn-air battery.