Biomass-Derived Bifunctional Cathode Electrocatalyst and Multiadaptive Gel Electrolyte for High-Performance Flexible Zn-Air Batteries in Wide Temperature Range.

Abstract

High-efficiency and low-cost bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as well as gel electrolytes with high thermal and mechanical adaptability are required for the development of flexible batteries. Herein, abundant Setaria Viridis (SV) biomass is selected as the precursor to prepare porous N-doped carbon tubes with high specific surface area and the 900°C calcination product of SV (SV-900) shows the optimum ORR/OER activities with a small EOER -EORR of 0.734 V. Meanwhile, a new multifunctional gel electrolyte named C20E2G5 is prepared using cellulose extracted from another widely distributed biomass named flax as the skeleton, epichlorohydrin as the cross-linker and glycerol as the antifreezing agent. C20E2G5 possesses high ionic conductivity from -40 to + 60 °C, excellent tensile and compressive resistance, high adhesion, strong freezing and heat resistance. Moreover, the symmetrical cell assembled with C20E2G5 can significantly inhibit Zn dendrite growth. Finally, flexible solid-state Zn-air batteries assembled with SV-900 and C20E2G5 show high open circuit voltage, large energy density, and long-term operation stability between -40 and + 60°C. This biomass-based approach is generic and can be used for the development of diverse next-generation electrochemical energy conversion and storage devices.