Surface bonding of MN macrocyclic metal complexes with pyridine-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes for non-aqueous Li-O batteries.

It is essential to develop bifunctional catalysts with high activity and stability for reversible oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs) and oxygen evolution reactions (OERs) in lithium-oxygen (Li-O) batteries. In this work, pyridine (Py) functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared to immobilize various solid MN macrocyclic metal complexes (MN-MC) as cathode electrocatalysts for Li-O batteries. Three types of MN-MC molecules, including iron phthalocyanine (FePc), cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) and iron protoporphyrin IX (Heme) were examined to evaluate the influence of central metal atoms and ligand substituents found in MN-MC molecules on the electrocatalytic performance of the study samples.