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Bimetallic metal-organic framework derived doped carbon nanostructures as high-performance electrocatalyst towards oxygen reactions

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Abstract

Rational design and development of cost-effective, highly active and durable bifunctional electrocatalysts towards oxygen redox reactions is of critical importance but great challenge for the broad implementation of next-generation metal-air batteries for electric transportation. Herein, a high-performance electrocatalyst of cobalt and zinc sulfides nanocrystals embedded within nitrogen and sulfur co-doped porous carbon is successfully designed and derived from bimetallic metal-organic frameworks of cobalt and zinc containing zeolitic imidazolate frameworks. The unique nanostructure contains abundant electrocatalytic active sites of sulfides nanocrystals and nitrogen and sulfur dopants which can be fast accessed through highly porous structure originate from both zinc vaporization and sulfurization processes. Such bifunctional electrocatalyst delivers a superior half-wave potential of 0.86 V towards oxygen reduction reaction and overpotential of 350 mV towards oxygen evolution reaction, as well as excellent durability owing to the highly stable carbon framework with a great graphitized portion. The performance boosting is mainly attributed to the unique nanostructure where bimetallic cobalt and zinc provide synergistic effect during both synthesis and catalysis processes. The design and realization pave a new way of development and understanding of bifunctional electrocatalyst towards clean electrochemical energy technologies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), through the Discovery Grant Program (RGPIN-2018-06725) and the Discovery Accelerator Supplement Grant program (RGPAS-2018-522651), and by the New Frontiers in Research Fund-Exploration program (NFRFE-2019-00488). L. C., Z. C. and X. L. W. also acknowledge support from Concordia University, the University of Alberta, and Future Energy Systems (FES). All authors thank Prof. Zhibin Ye for assistance in electrochemical measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Lu Chen, Xudong Liu & Xiaolei Wang

  2. Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada

    Lu Chen & Zhi Chen

  3. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 1H9, Canada

    Xiaolei Wang

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  1. Lu Chen
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  2. Zhi Chen
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Correspondence to Zhi Chen or Xiaolei Wang.

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Bimetallic metal-organic framework derived doped carbon nanostructures as high-performance electrocatalyst towards oxygen reactions

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Chen, L., Chen, Z., Liu, X. et al. Bimetallic metal-organic framework derived doped carbon nanostructures as high-performance electrocatalyst towards oxygen reactions. Nano Res. 14, 1533–1540 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3212-z

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