Restricting Growth of Ni₃Fe Nanoparticles on Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Nanotube/Graphene Nanosheets as Air-Electrode Electrocatalyst for Zn–Air Battery

Abstract

Exploring bifunctional oxygen electrode catalysts with efficient and stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)/oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance is one of the limitations for high-performance zinc–air battery. In this work, Ni3Fe alloy nanoparticles incorporated in three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanotube (CNT)/graphene nanosheet composites with N and S codoping (Ni3Fe/N–S–CNTs) as bifunctional oxygen electrode electrocatalysts for zinc–air battery. The main particle size of Ni3Fe nanoparticles could be well restricted because of the unique 3D structure of carbon nanotube/graphene nanosheet composites (N–S–CNTs). The large specific area of N–S–CNTs is conducive to the uniform dispersion of Ni3Fe nanoparticles. On the basis of the synergistic effect of Ni3Fe nanoparticles with N–S–CNTs, and the sufficient exposure of reactive sites, the synthesized Ni3Fe/N–S–CNTs catalyst exhibits excellent OER performance with a low overpotential of 215 mV at 10 mA cm–2, and efficient ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.877 V. When used as an electrocatalyst in zinc–air battery, the device exhibits a power density of 180.0 mW cm–2 and long term durability for 500 h.

3D Carbon Nanotube Network Bridged Hetero‐Structured Ni‐Fe‐S Nanocubes toward High‐Performance Lithium, Sodium, and Potassium Storage

“…In the S 2p spectrum of the Ni‐Fe‐S‐CNT nanocomposite, which is displayed in Figure S7b, Supporting Information, three obvious peaks at 161.4 eV for S 2p 3/2 , 162.7 eV for Fe 2p 1/2 , and 167.6 eV for CSC covalent bond occurred. [ 41 ] In the C 1s spectrum (Figure S7c, Supporting Information), three peaks located at 283.2, 283.8, and 286.1 eV can correspond to C  C, CC, and C  O covalent bonds, respectively. [ 42 ] The N 1s spectrum (Figure S7d, Supporting Information) reveals two characteristic peaks at 397.1 and 398.6 eV, corresponding to pyridine N and pyrrole N, respectively.…”

Ultrafine Ni-B nanoparticles for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

“…It shows a wide and weak peak at around 45 o for the Ni-B sample without calcination, indicating an amorphous structure. The peak at around 25 o is mainly the crystalline plane, (002), of the C material [24]. After the annealing treatment, all the four samples show three distinct diffraction peaks at approximately 45°, 52°, and 76°, which are indexed to (111), (200), and (220) characteristic diffractions, respectively, of Ni (JCPDS87-0712).…”

Nanocarbon-based metal-free and non-precious metal bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions

“…The dominant Co (III) species which were related to active intermediates for the OER, appeared to be side products generated from the oxidation of Co (II) by a peroxide intermediate during the ORR. Besides, Ni, Fe, Mn-based, singlemetal or bimetals supported on nanocarbon materials were also reported as bifunctional NPMCs [142][143][144]. For instance, a bifunctional NPMCs for ORR/OER with a 3D porous graphene aerogelsupporting Ni combined with MnO species (Ni-MnO/rGO) was developed [142].…”