Hollow Co3O4 Nanosphere Embedded in Carbon Arrays for Stable and Flexible Solid‐State Zinc–Air Batteries |
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| Authors: | Cao Guan Afriyanti Sumboja Haijun Wu Weina Ren Ximeng Liu Hong Zhang Zhaolin Liu Chuanwei Cheng Stephen J Pennycook John Wang |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore;2. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), Singapore;3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Special Artificial Microstructure Materials and Technology, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, P. R. China;4. The Institute of Dongguan – Tongji University, Dongguan, Guangdong, P. R. China |
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| Abstract: | 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 Co3O4 nanospheres embedded in nitrogen‐doped carbon nanowall arrays on flexible carbon cloth (NC‐Co3O4/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‐Co3O4/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. |
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| Keywords: | bifunctional electrocatalysts flexible Zn– air batteries hollow Co3O4 nanospheres Kirkendall effect metal– organic frameworks |
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