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Hollow Co 3 O 4 Nanosphere Embedded in Carbon Arrays for Stable and Flexible Solid‐State Zinc–Air Batteries
Author(s) -
Guan Cao,
Sumboja Afriyanti,
Wu Haijun,
Ren Weina,
Liu Ximeng,
Zhang Hong,
Liu Zhaolin,
Cheng Chuanwei,
Pennycook Stephen J.,
Wang John
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201704117
Subject(s) - materials science , bifunctional , catalysis , carbon fibers , chemical engineering , cathode , zinc , nanoparticle , oxygen evolution , kirkendall effect , nanotechnology , electrode , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy , composite material , chemistry , composite number , engineering
Highly active and durable air cathodes to catalyze both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are urgently required for rechargeable metal–air batteries. In this work, an efficient bifunctional oxygen catalyst comprising hollow Co 3 O 4 nanospheres embedded in nitrogen‐doped carbon nanowall arrays on flexible carbon cloth (NC‐Co 3 O 4 /CC) is reported. The hierarchical structure is facilely derived from a metal–organic framework precursor. A carbon onion coating constrains the Kirkendall effect to promote the conversion of the Co nanoparticles into irregular hollow oxide nanospheres with a fine scale nanograin structure, which enables promising catalytic properties toward both OER and ORR. The integrated NC‐Co 3 O 4 /CC can be used as an additive‐free air cathode for flexible all‐solid‐state zinc–air batteries, which present high open circuit potential (1.44 V), high capacity (387.2 mAh g −1 , based on the total mass of Zn and catalysts), excellent cycling stability and mechanical flexibility, significantly outperforming Pt‐ and Ir‐based zinc–air batteries.