A coordination polymer-derived Co3O4/Co–N@NMC composite material as a Zn–air battery cathode electrocatalyst and microwave absorber

Yaqin Wang; Xinxin Xu; Luyao Liu; Jin Chen; Guimei Shi

doi:10.1039/C8DT03792B

A coordination polymer-derived Co₃O₄/Co–N@NMC composite material as a Zn–air battery cathode electrocatalyst and microwave absorber†

Yaqin Wang,^a Xinxin Xu,

*^a Luyao Liu,^a Jin Chen*^b and Guimei Shi*^c

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Northeast University, Shenyang, P.R. China
E-mail: xuxx@mail.neu.edu.cn
Fax: +86-024-83684533
Tel: +86-024-83684533

^b Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110819, People's Republic of China
E-mail: chenjin@epm.neu.edu.cn

^c College of Science, Shenyang University of Technology, No. 111, Shenliao West Road, Economic & Technological Development Zone, Shenyang, P. R. China
E-mail: gmshi@imr.ac.cn

Abstract

Zn–air batteries, promising energy storage equipment with high energy density, light weight and a compact structure, are a perfect power source for electric vehicles. For a Zn–air battery, the activity of the air cathode electrocatalyst plays an important role in its performance. Here, employing a coordination polymer as a precursor, a composite material built from Co₃O₄ and Co–N active centres with nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon as a matrix has been synthesized successfully. This composite material possesses outstanding activity and stability in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) processes. It possesses a small half-wave potential (ORR_1/2 = 0.786 V) and low overpotential (OER₁₀ = 1.575 V) for the ORR and OER, respectively. With this composite material as an air cathode electrocatalyst, a rechargeable Zn–air battery was assembled successfully. During the discharge process, the maximum power density of this Zn–air battery is 122 mW cm⁻² at 0.76 V. The specific capacity of this battery is 505 mA h g⁻¹ at 25 mA cm⁻². The voltage gap between the charge and discharge processes is only 0.744 V at 10 mA cm⁻² and 1.308 V at 100 mA cm⁻². This rechargeable battery also shows promising stability after long-term charge–discharge experiments. Furthermore, the composite material also exhibits outstanding microwave adsorption properties. Its maximum reflection loss (RL) arrives at −13.9 dB with a thickness of only 1.0 mm. Thus, we find that coordination polymers are an ideal precursor for Zn–air battery cathode electrocatalysts and microwave absorbers.

This article is part of the themed collection: New Talent: Asia-Pacific

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C8DT03792B
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 19 Sep 2018
Accepted: 03 Oct 2018
First published: 08 Oct 2018

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Dalton Trans., 2019,48, 7150-7157

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A coordination polymer-derived Co₃O₄/Co–N@NMC composite material as a Zn–air battery cathode electrocatalyst and microwave absorber

Y. Wang, X. Xu, L. Liu, J. Chen and G. Shi, Dalton Trans., 2019, 48, 7150 DOI: 10.1039/C8DT03792B

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