Fast‐Charging Zn–Air Batteries with Long Lifetime Enabled by Reconstructed Amorphous Multi‐Metallic Sulfide

Abstract

Developing fast‐charging Zn–air batteries is crucial for widening their application but remains challenging owing to the limitation of sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics and insufficient active sites of electrocatalysts. To solve this issue, a reconstructed amorphous FeCoNiSx electrocatalyst with high density of efficient active sites, yielding low OER overpotentials of 202, 255, and 323 mV at 10, 100, and 500 mA cm−2, respectively, is developed for fast‐charging Zn–air batteries with low charging voltages at 100–400 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the fabricated 3241.8 mAh (20 mA cm−2, 25 °C) quasi‐solid Zn–air battery shows long lifetime of 500 h at −10 and 25 °C as well as 150 h at 40 °C under charging 100 mA cm−2. The detailed characterizations combine with density functional theory calculations indicate that the defect‐rich crystalline/amorphous ternary metal (oxy)hydroxide forms by the reconstruction of amorphous multi‐metallic sulfide, where the electron coupling effect among multi‐active sites and migration of intermediate O* from Ni site to the Fe site breaks the scaling relationship to lead to a low theoretical OER overpotential of 170 mV, accounting for the outstanding fast‐charging property. This work not only provides insights into designing advanced OER catalysts by the self‐reconstruction of the pre‐catalyst but also pioneers a pathway for practical fast‐charging Zn–air batteries.

Heterointerface promoted trifunctional electrocatalysts for all temperature high-performance rechargeable Zn–air batteries

“…8d also displays superior cycling durability for more than 264 cycles at 50 mA cm À2 with a voltage efficiency of 58% at À40 1C outperforming those of reported solid-state ZABs. 1,10,42,59 Significantly, flexible ZABs with CoS 1Àd /SnS 2Àd cathodes vindicate the outstanding electrochemical performances in the energy evaluation parameters such as power density, capacity, energy density, and cycle lifespan for wide operating temperatures, relating to those of previous reports (Fig. 8e and Table S10, ESI †).…”

“…S9, ESI†), implying the Heyrovsky mechanism, in which hydrogen desorption from the catalyst surface is the rate-determining step. 12,16,32,42 The fabricated catalysts follow the performances in the sequence of CoS 1− δ /SnS 2− δ > Pt/C > CoS > SnS 2 for ORR, CoS 1− δ /SnS 2− δ > RuO 2 > CoS > SnS 2 for the OER, and Pt/C ≥ CoS 1− δ /SnS 2− δ > CoS > SnS 2 for the HER, which illustrates significantly enhanced trifunctional activities.…”

“…2d) demonstrate the presence of metal sulfide (Co-S or Sn-S)-related characteristics peaks for 162.5 and 163.7 eV corresponding to the 2p 3/2 and 2p 1/2 core states. 3,42 Structural and chemical characterizations suggest the favorable electron delocalization in the sub-lattices of sulfides, which illustrates the enhanced charge transfer mechanism for electrochemical reactions. 10,43 The BET surface areas of CoS/ SnS 2 , CoS, and SnS 2 are 135, 112, and 65 m 2 g À1 (Fig.…”

“…S9, ESI †), implying the Heyrovsky mechanism, in which hydrogen desorption from the catalyst surface is the rate-determining step. 12,16,32,42 The fabricated catalysts follow the performances in the sequence of CoS 1Àd /SnS To determine the structural and morphological insights of the catalysts during the ORR and OER catalytic processes, XRD, Raman, TEM, and EDS analyses were performed. Fig.…”

Tunable phosphorization degree of CoxPy@N,P-doped carbon as a highly-active bifunctional electrocatalyst for rechargeable zinc–air batteries

“…As global fossil fuel combustion and energy demand increase, the development of highly effective, safe, inexpensive, and sustainable energy conversion and storage devices has been widely investigated by researchers. 1,2 Zinc-air batteries have excellent features such as high energy density, low-cost, effectiveness, excellent safety and easy recovery of Zn, and are considered to be one of the most promising tools for storing energy. [3][4][5] Zinc-air batteries are highly dependent on the stability and activity of cathode catalysts to accelerate the inherently slow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics during charging or discharging.…”