Engineering of the Heterointerface of Porous Carbon Nanofiber–Supported Nickel and Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle for Highly Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen Catalysis

Abstract

Constructing heterointerfaces between metals and metal compounds is an attractive strategy for the fabrication of high performance electrocatalysts. However, realizing the high degree of fusion of two different metal components to form heterointerfaces remains a great challenge, since the different metal components tend to grow separately in most cases. Herein, by employing carboxyl-modified carbon nanotubes to stabilize different metal ions, the engineering of abundant Ni|MnO heterointerfaces is achieved in porous carbon nanofibers (Ni|MnO/CNF) during the electrospinning-calcination process. Remarkably, the resulting Ni|MnO/ CNF catalyst exhibits activities that are among the best reported for the catalysis of both the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. Moreover, the catalyst also demonstrates high power density and long cycle life in Zn-air batteries. Its superior electrochemical properties are mainly ascribed to the synergy between the engineering of oxygen-deficient Ni|MnO heterointerfaces with a strong Ni/Mn alloying interaction and the 1D porous CNF support. This facile anchoring strategy for the initiation of bimetallic heterointerfaces creates appealing opportunities for the potential use of heteronanomaterials in practical sustainable energy applications.

N, S Codoped Carbon Matrix‐Encapsulated Co9S8 Nanoparticles as a Highly Efficient and Durable Bifunctional Oxygen Redox Electrocatalyst for Rechargeable Zn–Air Batteries

“…Furthermore, a wide range of comparisons shows that the as‐prepared Co 9 S 8 @N, S–C catalyst is better than most of the highly performing bifunctional catalysts reported so far (see Table S1 in the Supporting Information for a detailed comparison). [ 10,27–49 ]…”

Engineering Two-Phase Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts with Tunable and Synergetic Components for Flexible Zn–Air Batteries

“…Metal-air batteries, especially flexible Zn-air batteries (ZABs) have been considered as promising candidates owing to their high theoretical specific energy density (1084 Wh kg −1 ), source abundance in nature, environmental benignity and high safety [3,4]. Nevertheless, the wide application of the ZABs is still hampered by the sluggish kinetics of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the air cathode during the discharging and charging processes, arising from the multistep and proton-coupled electron transfer characters of the reversible oxygen electrocatalysis [5][6][7]. Currently, the noble metal Pt and metal oxides RuO 2 /IrO 2 are the most accepted benchmark electrocatalysts for ORR and OER, respectively.…”

Comparison of the Level and Mechanisms of Toxicity of Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon Nanofibers, and Silicon Nanotubes in Bioassay with Four Marine Microalgae

“…Carbon nanotubes were successfully used in electronics [6], catalysis [7,8], environmental purification [9,10], biomedicine [11,12], and other fields. Carbon nanofibers have an application in energy storage [13,14], electronics [15], catalysis [16,17], biosensing [18], etc. Silica NPs are mostly valued by their mesoporous properties [19].…”