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An Oxygen‐Vacancy‐Rich Semiconductor‐Supported Bifunctional Catalyst for Efficient and Stable Zinc–Air Batteries
Author(s) -
Liu Guihua,
Li Jingde,
Fu Jing,
Jiang Gaopeng,
Lui Gregory,
Luo Dan,
Deng YaPing,
Zhang Jing,
Cano Zachary P.,
Yu Aiping,
Su Dong,
Bai Zhengyu,
Yang Lin,
Chen Zhongwei
Publication year - 2019
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.201806761
Subject(s) - bifunctional , materials science , catalysis , bifunctional catalyst , battery (electricity) , chemical engineering , semiconductor , zinc , oxygen , oxide , nanotechnology , inorganic chemistry , metallurgy , optoelectronics , chemistry , organic chemistry , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
The highly oxidative operating conditions of rechargeable zinc–air batteries causes significant carbon‐support corrosion of bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts. Here, a new strategy for the catalyst support design focusing on oxygen vacancy (OV)‐rich, low‐bandgap semiconductor is proposed. The OVs promote the electrical conductivity of the oxide support, and at the same time offer a strong metal–support interaction (SMSI), which enables the catalysts to have small metal size, high catalytic activity, and high stability. The strategy is demonstrated by successfully synthesizing ultrafine Co‐metal‐decorated 3D ordered macroporous titanium oxynitride (3DOM‐Co@TiO x N y ). The 3DOM‐Co@TiO x N y catalyst exhibits comparable activities for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions, but much higher cycling stability than noble metals in alkaline conditions. The zinc–air battery using this catalyst delivers an excellent stability with less than 1% energy efficiency loss over 900 charge–discharge cycles at 20 mA cm −2 . The high stability is attributed to the strong SMSI between Co and 3DOM‐TiO x N y which is verified by density functional theory calculations. This work sheds light on using OV‐rich semiconductors as a promising support to design efficient and durable nonprecious electrocatalysts.