Abstract
Enhancing the activity of Co-based electrocatalysts can be generally achieved by increasing the active center conductivity even fabricating hybrid materials for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process. Herein, we developed a bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries (ZABs). The Ce-doped Co_3O_4 nanoparticles embedded on carbon nanofibers complex catalyst (Ce@Co_3O_4/ CNFs) was synthesized via the incorporation of the electrospinning technology and in-situ growth process. The Ce@Co_3O_4/CNFs exhibited the comparable performance to Pt/C and RuO_2 in the alkaline environment with a half-wave potential of 0.810 V and overpotential of 380 mV(@ 10 mA cm~(-2)) for the ORR and OER, respectively. Moreover, an all-solid-state rechargeable ZABs with Ce@Co_3O_4/CNFs cathode was also assembled, which shows a relatively narrow discharge-charge voltage gap and a good cycle performance. These results provide a novel approach in developing Co-based dual functional electrocatalysts to enable the energy applications.
NSTL
Elsevier