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Hierarchical mesoporous S,N-codoped carbon nanostructures composed of Co/Co-Cu-S/carbon nanoplate arrays on carbon nanofibers as a self-supported air cathode for long-lasting rechargeable Zn-air batteries

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Abstract

One of the primary roadblocks to widespread applications of rechargeable Zn-air batteries is the durability issue with oxygen reduction and evolution processes (ORR/OER) bifunctional electrocatalysts. We herein report the construction of a self-supported air cathode for Zn-air batteries made of S,N-codoped porous complex carbon nanostructures of Co/Co-Cu-S/carbon nanoplate arrays and carbon nanofibers (denoted as Co/Co-Cu-S@SNPCP-CFs). The hierarchical heteroatom-doped mesoporous carbon nanohybrids with multiple active species not only provide a high surface-to-volume ratio, exposing more catalytic sites and accelerating the charge and mass transfer, but also boost the activity and durability. The Co/Co-Cu-S@SNPCP-CFs catalyst reveals a small potential gap (ΔE=0.67 V) between the half-wave potential of ORR and OER potential at 10 mA cm−2, demonstrating outstanding bifunctional performance. Furthermore, the rechargeable Zn-air battery made with the as-obtained electrocatalyst exhibits a high-power density of 220 mW cm−2 and a long cycling time of over 800 h at 10 mA cm−2, and the flexible solid state rechargeable Zn-air battery based on Co/Co-Cu-S@SNPCP-CFs self-supporting air cathode also displays a long duration time of over 60 h.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China

    ZhuYing Xu, Lei Yan, JunLing Shen, XiaoJing Yang, YiJun Zhong & Yong Hu

  2. Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    JiQiang Ning

  3. Hangzhou Institute of Advanced Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, 311231, China

    Yong Hu

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  1. ZhuYing Xu
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Correspondence to Yong Hu.

Additional information

This work was supported by the Major Program of Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LD22B030002), Zhejiang Provincial Ten Thousand Talent Program, and the Independent Designing Scientific Research Project of Zhejiang Normal University (Grant No. 2020ZS03).

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11431_2021_1942_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Hierarchical mesoporous S,N-codoped carbon nanostructures composed of Co/Co-Cu-S/carbon nanoplate arrays on carbon nanofibers as a self-supported air cathode for long-lasting rechargeable Zn-air batteries

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Xu, Z., Yan, L., Shen, J. et al. Hierarchical mesoporous S,N-codoped carbon nanostructures composed of Co/Co-Cu-S/carbon nanoplate arrays on carbon nanofibers as a self-supported air cathode for long-lasting rechargeable Zn-air batteries. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 65, 693–703 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-021-1942-6

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