Mutual Self-Regulation of d-Electrons of Single Atoms and Adjacent Nanoparticles for Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysis and Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries.

ABSTRACT: Rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are a promising energy conversion device, which rely critically on electrocatalysts to accelerate their rate-determining reactions such as oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER). Herein, we fabricate a range of bifunctional M-N-C (metal-nitrogen-carbon) catalysts containing M-N_x coordination sites and M/M_xC nanoparticles (M = Co, Fe, and Cu) using a new class of γ-cyclodextrin (CD) based metal-organic framework as the precursor. With the two types of active sites interacting with each other in the catalysts, the obtained Fe@C-FeNC and Co@C-CoNC display superior alkaline ORR activity in terms of low half-wave (E_1/2) potential (~ 0.917 and 0.906 V, respectively), which are higher than Cu@C-CuNC (~ 0.

SUBMITTER: Chandrasekaran S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9922344 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature