Cobalt on boron‐doped carbon nitride for a novel bifunctional electrocatalyst in zinc‐air batteries

Abstract

Carbon-based materials have been widely applied in electrochemical field because of good conductivity and low cost. However, the electrochemical performances have been hindered by few active sites in themselves, heteroatom doping is a general method to solve the problem. Herein, boron (B) is doped into the carbon nitride (CN) derived from glucose and melamine by a facile way, and cobalt (Co) is introduced in the B-doped carbon nitride (BNC) to form Co@BNC nanocomposites. Among the different contents of Co in Co@BNC series, 12%Co@BNC shows the best oxygen reduction reaction properties with half-wave potential of 0.78 V, good stability and methanol tolerance in alkaline solution. Besides, 12%Co@BNC also shows oxygen evolution reaction voltage of 1.67 V, and good bifunctional electrocatalysis behaviors with ΔE of 0.89 V. This bifunctional electrocatalyst can be applied in zinc-air batteries for transportation field.

Quasi-Solid-State Flexible Zn–Air Batteries with a Hydrophilic-Treated Co@NCNTs Array Electrocatalyst and PEO–PANa Electrolyte

“…In Figure a, there are six different peaks in the investigated spectra, including C 1s, N 1s, S 2p, Mo 3d, Co 2p, and O 1s. The C 1s spectra (Figure b) exhibit three peaks at 284.8, 286.6, and 288 eV that can be attributed to the C–C/CC, C–N/C–O, and CO groups, respectively. − The N 1s spectra is shown in Figure c with the peaks observed at 395.5 eV corresponding to Mo 3p. , And the peaks observed at 398.6, 400.9 and 402.2 eV are attributed to Pyri-N, Pyrr-N, and Grap-N, respectively. − The S 2p spectra (Figure d) show two main peaks located at 162.5 and 163.7 eV, attributed to the S 2p 3/2 and S 2p 1/2 orbitals. , The Mo 3d spectra are shown in Figure e. The peaks appearing of MoS 2 –Co@NCNTs–ER and MoS 2 at 232.5 and 229.3 eV are attributed to Mo 3d 3/2 and Mo 3d 5/2 of the Mo–S phase. , And the peaks at 232.8 and 236 eV for MoS 2 –Co@NCNTs–ER were attributed to Mo 3d 3/2 and Mo 3d 5/2 of Mo VI –O phase, − and the molar ratio of MoS 2 (cyan curve with peak at 229.3 eV) to MoO 3 (yellow curve with peak at 232.8 eV) in MoS 2 –Co@NCNTs–ER is 1:0.47.…”