Study on the Simple Surface Treatments of N, P Dual‐doped Carbon as Metal‐free Catalyst for Metal‐air Batteries

Abstract

N, P dual‐doped porous carbon with high specific surface area of ∼2000 m2 g−1 was prepared via foaming‐carbonization process. It was demonstrated that the simple surface treatment and modification can conveniently further improve the catalytic performance of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The results showed that chemisorbed phosphorus can promote the surface treatment of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). The modified novel sites, adsorbing water molecules of a semi‐free state, promoted the offensive key steps of H2O molecules in ORR. After post‐treatment, the limit current density increased from 5.0 to 6.1 mA cm−2 with a decreased Tafel slope and the onset potential positively shifted. This surface‐modified catalyst was applied to Zn‐air battery and Al‐air battery, and had exhibited good applicability and excellent performances. This work illustrates that the simple post‐treatments can conveniently and effectively improve the ORR performance of metal‐free carbon catalysts.

Vacancy‐induced LaMnO3 Perovskite as Bifunctional Air‐breathing Electrode for Rechargeable Lithium‐Air Battery

“…Tafel plot is a linear plot that consists of the over potential (η) Vs current density (j) on a logarithmic scale as shown below Tafel Eq. : [39,40] …”

Material design and surface chemistry for advanced rechargeable zinc–air batteries

“…Carbon materials (such as graphene, carbon nanotube, and porous carbon) are of great interest due to their inherent advantages. [50][51][52][53][54][55][56] Metal-free carbon-based electrocatalysts showed superior ORR performances in both acidic and alkaline electrolytes. [57][58][59] In addition, it has emerged as a promising electrocatalyst owing to its advantages such as earth abundance, low price, environmental friendliness, and ease in tunability of their catalytic properties and structures.…”

Biomass Waste‐Derived Electrocatalyst Constructed with g‐C3N4 as a Multifunctional Template for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction

“…To determine the practical application in energy devices for NHC-X, we used NHC-900 to construct a rechargeable zinc-air battery. [50] As shown in Figure 6a, polis zinc plate (0.1 mm thickness) was used as anode, 6.0 M KOH solution containing 0.2 M zinc acetate was electrolyte and NHC-900 loaded on the surface of gas diffusion layers was used as air cathode. [51,52] It was observed that the open circuit voltage (OCV) for NHC-900 catalyzed battery was 1.351 V by multi-meter (Figure 6b).…”