Co-N-Doped Directional Multichannel PAN/CA-Based Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers as High-Efficiency Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Zn–Air Batteries

Abstract

A reasonable design of the pore structure of carbon nanofiber-based electrocatalysts can effectively accelerate the slow kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this study, we report an electrospinning method by adding supramolecular coordination polymers to selected polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and cellulose acetate (CA) spinning systems. Benefiting from the difference in the thermal decomposition temperature of each component during the pyrolysis process, CA was applied as a sacrificial template to prepare a high-efficiency ORR/OER bifunctional electrocatalyst

Nanofibrillated Cellulose-Derived Nanofibrous Co@N-C as Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysts in Zn–Air Batteries

“…The comparison also indicates that NFC plays an essential role in the generation of micropores in Co-Ad/NFC-700 due to the thermal-induced decomposition of nanofibrillated cellulose. 26,37 As the main place where the active sites exist, micropores are very important for the ORR catalytic process. For the synthesized catalyst materials, the size distribution of Co nanoparticles was narrow and uniform due to the presence of NFC, which is extremely crucial for the exposure of the active components.…”

“…One-dimensional (1D) nanostructured carbon materials, including carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), have been extensively applied as a M@N-C catalyst support in recent years with merits of the optimized electrical conductivity, significant specific surface area, and other peculiar physical/chemical properties. − Doping heteroatoms into the carbon lattice and homogeneously immobilizing active metal nanoparticles on 1D carbon hosts are effective tactics to improve the utilization of active species and prompt electron transfer across the electrode–electrolyte interface. , Typically, the production of CNFs and CNTs may involve chemical vapor deposition or electrospinning techniques, which usually utilize petrochemical feedstocks and has huge energy consumption at high expenses. Hence, it is more desirable to resort to 1D carbon through a sustainable and economical way to construct M@N-C catalysts.…”

3D Hierarchical Porous Carbon Aerogel Electrocatalysts Based on Cellulose/Aramid Nanofibers and Application in High-Performance Zn–Air Batteries

“…The relationship between the potentials measured vs Ag/AgCl and reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) can be obtained as the following equation The electron transfer number ( n ) and kinetic current density ( J k ) were obtained on the basis of the Koutecky–Levich (K–L) equation in which ω is the electrode rotation rate, J k is the kinetic current density, J is the measured current density, F is the Faraday constant, C O is the oxygen concentration (solution) in 0.1 M KOH, D is the oxygen diffusion coefficient of O 2 , and ν is the kinematic viscosity of the electrolyte …”

Interfacial Engineering of Leaf-like Bimetallic MOF-Based Co@NC Nanoarrays Coupled with Ultrathin CoFe-LDH Nanosheets for Rechargeable and Flexible Zn-Air Batteries

“…Nevertheless, the actual energy efficiency and cycling performance of ZABs are still far from satisfactory at this time, which is attributed to the poor reactivity of oxygen evolution reduction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the air cathode during the charge-discharge process [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. These two electrochemical reactions are multi-electron transfer processes with complex reaction paths, resulting in high overpotential and sluggish kinetics [ 15 , 16 ]. Traditional precious metal-based materials, such as platinum (Pt), iridium (Ir), and ruthenium (Ru), have been confirmed as highly efficient electrocatalysts for ORR or OER, but their large-scale application in ZABs is greatly hindered by the disadvantages of scarcity, expensiveness, single functionality, and poor durability [ 10 , 17 ].…”