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

Highlights

• Doping and porosity generation were completed simultaneously.

• Metal–heteroatom-doped carbon nanofibers are flexible, porous, and well dispersed.

• Results include excellent oxygen reduction reaction and enhanced Zn–air battery performance.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40820-019-0238-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Abstract

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

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40820-019-0238-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.