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(Co,Fe) 3 O 4 Decorated Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nanotubes in Nano‐Composite Gas Diffusion Layers as Highly Stable Bifunctional Catalysts for Rechargeable Zinc‐Air Batteries
Author(s) -
Aasen Drew,
Clark Michael P.,
Ivey Douglas G.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
batteries and supercaps
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2566-6223
DOI - 10.1002/batt.201900168
Subject(s) - bifunctional , materials science , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , electrode , chemical engineering , carbon nanotube , bifunctional catalyst , catalysis , composite number , nanoparticle , analytical chemistry (journal) , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
Abstract (Co,Fe) 3 O 4 nanoparticles are decorated onto N‐doped carbon nanotubes at room temperature through a simple mixing process and are simultaneously deposited within a porous gas diffusion layer (GDL) by an impregnation technique. The (Co,Fe) 3 O 4 nanoparticles are identified as the spinel phase through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. The composite GDL is used as the air electrode for Zn‐air batteries and shows excellent performance as a bifunctional catalyst with initial discharge and charge potentials of 1.19 V and 2.00 V, respectively, at 20 mA cm −2 . Cycling performance of the impregnated electrode compares favourably with benchmark Pt‐RuO 2 catalysts at both 10 mA cm −2 and 20 mA cm −2 . The (Co,Fe) 3 O 4 /N‐CNT impregnated GDL had a final discharge/charge efficiency of 58.5 % after 100 h (200 cycles) of bifunctional cycling at 10 mA cm −2 , which is superior to that of Pt‐RuO 2 (55.3 % efficiency). The cycling efficiency for (Co,Fe) 3 O 4 /N‐CNT impregnated GDL at 20 mA cm −2 is also better than that for Pt−Ru (53.5 % vs 41.3 % after 50 h (100 cycles)). The result is a simple and easily scalable one‐pot electrode synthesis method for high performing bi‐functional air electrodes for Zn‐air batteries.