Flexible, Porous, and Metal–Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Nanofibers as Efficient ORR Electrocatalysts for Zn–Air Battery

• DOI: 10.1007/s40820-019-0238-4
• Publication Date: 2019-01-19T05:02:22Z
• Authors: Qijian Niu; Binling Chen; Junxia Guo; Jun Nie; Xindong Guo; Guiping Ma
• Keywords: Heteroatom; Electrospinning; Carbon fibers

Developing an efficient and durable oxygen reduction electrocatalyst is critical for clean-energy technology, such as fuel cells metal–air batteries. In this study, we developed a facile strategy the preparation of flexible, porous, well-dispersed metal–heteroatom-doped carbon nanofibers by direct carbonization electrospun Zn/Co-ZIFs/PAN (Zn/Co-ZIFs/PAN). The obtained Zn/Co N co-doped porous carbonized at 800 °C (Zn/Co–N@PCNFs-800) presented good flexibility, continuous structure, superior reaction (ORR) catalytic activity to that commercial 20 wt% Pt/C, in terms its onset potential (0.98 V vs. RHE), half-wave (0.89 limiting current density (− 5.26 mA cm−2). addition, tested suitability durability Zn/Co–N@PCNFs-800 cathode rechargeable Zn–air battery. prepared batteries exhibited higher power (83.5 mW cm−2), specific capacity (640.3 mAh g−1), excellent reversibility, better cycling life than Pt/C + RuO2 catalysts. This design flexible non-precious metal-doped ORR electrocatalysts from ZIFs/polymer could be extended fabricate other novel, stable, easy-to-use multi-functional technology.