Carbon nanotube-encapsulated Co/CoFe heterojunctions as a highly-efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for rechargeable zinc-air batteries.

J Colloid Interface Sci

Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Nanotechnology and Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China. Electronic address:

Published: July 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • Designing low-cost and stable catalysts for oxygen electrocatalysis is a key challenge, and this study introduces a novel strategy using in-situ growth to create Co/CoFe nanoparticles within nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes.
  • The unique tubular structure enhances charge transfer and prevents particle aggregation, leading to improved efficiency in oxygen reduction and evolution reactions, particularly shown by Co/CoFe@NCNTs-800 with remarkable activity and stability after extensive cycling.
  • This catalyst also performs excellently in rechargeable zinc-air batteries, demonstrating high power density and specific capacity, and the findings offer valuable insights for advancing alloy catalysts with complex interfaces.

Article Abstract

In oxygen electrocatalysis, how to rationally design low-cost catalysts with reasonable structure and long-term stability is a crucial issue. Here, an in-situ growth strategy is used to construct a shaped structure encapsulating a uniformly-dispersed Co/CoFe heterojunction in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Co/CoFe@NCNTs). Hollow CoFe layered-double-hydroxide prisms act as sacrifices for in-situ growth of Co/CoFe nanoparticles, which also catalyze the growth of bamboo-like NCNTs. Tubular structure not only accelerates the charge transfer through the interactions between Co and CoFe, but also limits the aggregation of the particles, thereby promoting the 4e oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER) kinetics and stabilizing the bifunctional activity. Co/CoFe@NCNTs-800 (pyrolyzed at 800 °C) shows exceptional ORR activity (half-wave potential of 0.89 V) and methanol tolerance. Meanwhile, Co/CoFe@NCNTs-800 shows a small OER overpotential of 280 mV, which increases by only 9 mV after 1000 cyclic voltammetry (CV) cycles. The outstanding bifunctionality (potential gap of 0.62 V) is ascribed to the electronic structure modulation at the Co/CoFe heterointerface. Notably, it also has a high performance as an air-cathode for rechargeable zinc-air battery, showing high power density (165 mW cm) and specific capacity (770.5 m Ah kg). This work provides a new reference for promoting the development of alloy catalysts with heterogeneous interfaces.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2024.04.025DOI Listing

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