In Situ Synthesis of Ultrathin Graphene‐Like Nanosheets as a Highly Effective Oxygen Catalyst for Zinc−Air Batteries

Abstract

AbstractTwo‐dimensional materials have large specific area, high electron transfer capability and abundant exposed active sites, which are beneficial to improve their catalytic properties. Here, we used a simple salt‐template method to construct ultrathin graphene‐like Fe/N−C nanosheets (named as Fe/GNS‐1.5). During the synthesis process, NaCl crystallite serves as a rigid template of two‐dimensional mesoscopic structure. Iron nitrate acts as a gas‐foaming agent, which plays pivotal part in the morphology and structure of catalysts. The obtained Fe/GNS‐1.5 nanosheets with a thickness of 3 nm have a large specific surface area (705 m2 g−1). Benefiting from the structure advantages, Fe/GNS‐1.5 exhibits a great bifunctional catalytic performance. The Fe/GNS‐1.5 catalyst is employed as air cathode of zinc−air battery to examine its practical application, which presents excellent power density (156 mW cm−2) and favorable cyclic stability for more than 600 cycles.