Yan Shihan, Li Hao, Zhu Jiahao, Xiong Wei, Lei Renbo, Wang Xinwei
School of Advanced Materials, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University, Shenzhen, People's Republic of China.
Nanotechnology. 2021 Apr 14;32(27). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/abf26f.
Rechargeable Zn-air batteries are a promising type of metal-air batteries for high-density energy storage. However, their practical use is limited by the use of costly noble-metal electrocatalysts for the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occurred at the air electrode of the Zn-air batteries. This work reports a new non-precious bifunctional OER/ORR electrocatalyst of NiS/carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which is made by atomic layer deposition (ALD) of nickel sulfide (NiS) on CNTs, for the applications for the air electrode of the Zn-air batteries. The NiS/CNT electrocatalyst on a carbon cloth electrode exhibits a low OER overpotential of 288 mV to reach 10 mA cmin current density, and the electrocatalyst on a rotating disk electrode exhibits a half-wave ORR potential of 0.81 V in alkaline electrolyte. With the use of the NiS/CNT electrocatalyst for the air electrode, the fabricated aqueous rechargeable Zn-air batteries show a fairly good maximum output power density of 110 mW cm, which highlights the great promise of the ALD NiS/CNT electrocatalyst for Zn-air batteries.
可充电锌空气电池是一种用于高密度储能的很有前景的金属空气电池类型。然而，它们的实际应用受到限制，因为在锌空气电池的空气电极上发生的氧还原反应（ORR）和析氧反应（OER）动力学缓慢，需要使用昂贵的贵金属电催化剂。这项工作报道了一种新型的非贵金属双功能OER/ORR电催化剂NiS/碳纳米管（CNT），它是通过在碳纳米管上进行硫化镍（NiS）的原子层沉积（ALD）制备的，用于锌空气电池的空气电极应用。碳布电极上的NiS/CNT电催化剂在电流密度达到10 mA cm时表现出288 mV的低OER过电位，旋转圆盘电极上的该电催化剂在碱性电解质中表现出0.81 V的半波ORR电位。将NiS/CNT电催化剂用于空气电极，所制备的水系可充电锌空气电池显示出相当好的110 mW cm的最大输出功率密度，这突出了ALD NiS/CNT电催化剂在锌空气电池方面的巨大前景。
