Abstract
It is critical to study efficient, stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts due to insufficient stability and expensive price of Pt/C catalysts for Zn-air batteries. Fe–N–C electrocatalysts was synthesized by a facile solvent-green method and the efficiency of Fe–N–C optimized was studied as potential ORR electrocatalysts under alkaline condition. Results indicated that it had excellent ORR activity with E1/2 of 0.93 V, which was competitive to that of Pt/C-JM under the same conditions. Moreover, the assembled Zn-air battery exhibited discharge potential and charge potential of 1.2 V, 2.32 V at 5 mA cm−2 with high stability, respectively. Overall, all results illustrated that Fe–N–C is an excellent ORR electrocatalyst in the field of metal air battery. Additionally, this work opens a good way to synthesize highly efficient electrocatalysts from metal organic framework and to investigate ORR mechanism of efficient chemical energy to electricity conversion.
Highlights
Zinc-air battery has been paid much attention as an energy storage device due to its high energy density, safety, environmental protection as well as economic costs [1–4]
Xu et al [31] recently reported that Fe–N–C electrocatalyst synthesized by Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs)-8 exhibited excellent Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity under alkaline condition, and demonstrated relatively good peak power density of 118.05 mW/cm2 in Zinc-air battery
Fe–N–C-2# showed superior ORR stability. It initially reached at 4.81 mA/cm2 and became 4.89 mA/cm2 after 10000 s. These results showed the remarkable performance of Fe–N–C-2# as nonprecious metal catalysts with remarkable ORR activity and stability
Summary
Zinc-air battery has been paid much attention as an energy storage device due to its high energy density, safety, environmental protection as well as economic costs [1–4]. Wang et al [28] studied the Fe–N–C electrocatalyst prepared by pyrolysis of solid DCDA and ammonium ferric citrate precursor Results showed that it exhibited good bifunctional ORR and OER activities under alkaline condition compared to commercial Pt/C and IrO2, in which exhibited maximum power density of 220 mW/cm at 0.72 V and good cycle durability in Zinc-air battery. Xu et al [31] recently reported that Fe–N–C electrocatalyst synthesized by ZIF-8 exhibited excellent ORR activity under alkaline condition, and demonstrated relatively good peak power density of 118.05 mW/cm in Zinc-air battery. They pointed out that Fe3O4 could enhance the wettability of composite, in which could improve O2 adsorption and the triple-phase boundary. This work opens light on a facile method to prepare Fe–N–C electrocatalyst and enhance its application of Zinc-air battery
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