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Controllable Adsorption of Cobalt Metal Ions on Cotton Fabrics and Their Carbonised Oxygen Electrocatalysts

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Abstract

The sluggish reaction rate of the oxygen electrode is always the main obstacle impeding the practical energy conversion efficiency of the metal-air batteries. In this work, a novel and simple strategy is reported to transform conventional cotton fabrics into metal-doped oxygen electrocatalysts. Through a chemical adsorption approach, cobalt metal ions are uniformly loaded on the cotton fibre surface. By a subsequent carbonisation and oxidisation procedures, the cobalt-doped cotton carbon catalysts are obtained. Thereinto, the cobalt oxides doped cotton carbon catalyst (CoO/CC) exhibits the best ORR performance, with an onset potential of 0.85 V (vs. RHE) and the limiting current density of 5.7 mA/cm2 in 0.1 M KOH. Notably, the OER performance is also greatly improved under the same conditions, suggesting great potential to be used as bifunctional materials. Structural and elemental characterisations demonstrate that these good results are ascribed to two aspects: the macropore generation in the cotton carbon due to the metal etching effect, and the cobalt metals transforming into cobalt oxides after the oxidisation process. Thus, this work provides a simple approach to recycle conventional textiles into valuable products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technologies, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430200, People’s Republic of China

    Shan Jiang & Yanbo Liu

  2. College for Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu, China

    Jian Fang

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  1. Shan Jiang
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  2. Yanbo Liu
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Correspondence to Jian Fang.

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Jiang, S., Liu, Y. & Fang, J. Controllable Adsorption of Cobalt Metal Ions on Cotton Fabrics and Their Carbonised Oxygen Electrocatalysts. Electrocatalysis 12, 667–677 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12678-021-00677-4

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