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2D nanoplate assembled nitrogen doped hollow carbon sphere decorated with Fe3O4 as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-air batteries

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Abstract

Designing a highly efficient non-precious based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst is critical for the commercialization of various sustainable energy storage and conversion devices such as metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Herein, we report a convenient strategy to synthesis Fe3O4 embedded in N doped hollow carbon sphere (NHCS) for ORR. What’s interesting is that the carbon microsphere is composed of two-dimensional (2D) nanoplate that could provide more exposed active sites. The usage of solid ZnO nanowires as zinc source is crucial to obtain this structure. The Fe3O4@NHCS-2 exhibits better catalytic activity and durability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Moreover, it further displays high-performance of Zn-air batteries as a cathode electrocatalyst with a high-power density of 133 mW·cm−2 and high specific capacity of 701 mA·h·g−1. The special hollow structure composed 2D nanoplate, high surface area, as well as synergistic effect between the high active Fe3O4 nanoparticles and N-doped matrix endows this outstanding catalytic activity. The work presented here can be easily extended to prepare metal compounds decorated carbon nanomaterials with special structure for a broad range of energy storage and conversion devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51772039), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (No. DUT18LK13). The Research Center for Solar Light Energy Conversion, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan also supports this work financially.

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  1. Yanqiang Li and Huiyong Huang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Panjin Campus, Panjin, 124221, China

    Yanqiang Li, Huiyong Huang, Xin Yu & Chao Wang

  2. Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, 808-0196, Japan

    Tingli Ma

  3. Center for Advanced Materials Research, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450007, China

    Siru Chen

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  1. Yanqiang Li
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  2. Huiyong Huang
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  3. Siru Chen
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  4. Xin Yu
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Correspondence to Yanqiang Li, Siru Chen or Tingli Ma.

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12274_2019_2512_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

2D nanoplate assembled nitrogen doped hollow carbon sphere decorated with Fe3O4 as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-air batteries

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Li, Y., Huang, H., Chen, S. et al. 2D nanoplate assembled nitrogen doped hollow carbon sphere decorated with Fe3O4 as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-air batteries. Nano Res. 12, 2774–2780 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2512-7

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