In Situ Monitored (N, O)‐Doping of Flexible Vertical Graphene Films with High‐Flux Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition for Remarkable Metal‐Free Redox Catalysis Essential to Alkaline Zinc–Air Batteries

• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202200614
• Publication Date: 2022-03-05T07:42:41Z
• Authors: Zhiheng Wu; Yuran Yu; Gongkai Zhang; Yongshang Zhang; Ruxin Guo; Lu Li; Yige Zhao; Zhuo Wang; Yonglong Shen; Guosheng Shao
• Keywords: Oxygen evolution; Overpotential

Abstract Rechargeable zinc–air batteries (ZABs) have attracted great interests for emerging energy applications. Nevertheless, one of the major bottlenecks lies in fabrication bifunctional catalysts with high electrochemical activity, stability, low cost, and free precious rare metals. Herein, a high‐performance metal‐free catalyst is synthesized single step by regulating radicals within recently invented high‐flux plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (HPECVD) system equipped situ diagnostics. Thus‐derived (N, O)‐doped vertical few‐layer graphene film (VGNO) areal population perfect orientation, tunable catalytic states, configurations, thus enabling significantly kinetic processes oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) evolution (OER) reference to milestone achievements date. Application such VGNO aqueous ZABs (A‐ZABs) flexible solid‐state (S‐ZABs) exhibited discharge power density excellent cycling which remarkably outperformed using benchmarked precious‐metal based catalysts. The current work provides solid basis toward developing low‐cost, resource‐sustainable, eco‐friendly without any metals outstanding OER ORR catalysis.