Issue

Vol. 12 (2020)

Hierarchical Carbon Microtube@Nanotube Core–Shell Structure for High-Performance Oxygen Electrocatalysis and Zn–Air Battery

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00435-z
Wenfu Xie
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Jianming Li
Petroleum Geology Research and Laboratory Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED), PetroChina, Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China
Yuke Song
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Shijin Li
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Jianbo Li
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China
Mingfei Shao
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Mingfei Shao

shaomf@mail.buct.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 12 (2020), Article Number: 97

Abstract

Zinc–air batteries (ZABs) hold tremendous promise for clean and efficient energy storage with the merits of high theoretical energy density and environmental friendliness. However, the performance of practical ZABs is still unsatisfactory because of the inevitably decreased activity of electrocatalysts when assembly into a thick electrode with high mass loading. Herein, we report a hierarchical electrocatalyst based on carbon microtube@nanotube core–shell nanostructure (CMT@CNT), which demonstrates superior electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction with a small potential gap of 0.678 V. Remarkably, when being employed as air–cathode in ZAB, the CMT@CNT presents an excellent performance with a high power density (160.6 mW cm−2), specific capacity (781.7 mAhg−1Zn) as well as long cycle stability (117 h, 351 cycles). Moreover, the ZAB performance of CMT@CNT is maintained well even under high mass loading (3 mg cm−2, three times as much as traditional usage), which could afford high power density and energy density for advanced electronic equipment. We believe that this work is promising for the rational design of hierarchical structured electrocatalysts for advanced metal-air batteries.


Highlights:


1 Hierarchical carbon microtube@nanotube (CMT@CNT) core–shell nanostructure is successfully synthesized.
2 The CMT@CNT shows superior electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction.
3 A mass-loading independent high performance for zinc–air battery is achieved on the CMT@CNT.

Keywords

Hierarchical structure Carbon microtube@nanotube Core–shell Zinc–air battery
Xie, Wenfu, Jianming Li, Yuke Song, Shijin Li, Jianbo Li, and Mingfei Shao. 2020. “Hierarchical Carbon Microtube@Nanotube Core–Shell Structure for High-Performance Oxygen Electrocatalysis and Zn–Air Battery”. Nano-Micro Letters 12 (April):97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-020-00435-z.
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