Ni, Wenpeng, Liu, Shimin, Du, Chao, Fei, Yuqing, He, Yude, Ma, Xiangyuan, Lu, Liujin, and Deng, Youquan
There is growing interest in the research of electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which is the key issue for the commercialization of zinc-air (Zn-air) battery. Except precious metal based electrocatalysts, heteroatom-doped carbon materials, as one promising catalyst, also show excellent catalytic activity for ORR. In this work, cobalt phosphide (Co 2 P) and nitrogen, fluorine and phosphorus co-doped mesoporous carbon is synthesized in one step by a phosphorus-containing ionic liquids assisted route. Owing to the synergy effect of Co 2 P and functionalized mesoporous carbon, the catalyst exhibits a high half-wave potential of 0.86 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode) which is about 30 mV positive than commercial Pt/C, coupled with outstanding stability. At last, the discharge potential of the primary zinc-air battery based on this catalyst is 1.1 V at a constant current density of 50 mA cm −2 (150 mV higher than Pt/C electrode) while the capacity is about 800 mAh g −1 Zn . At the same time, the superior power density is also realized for the zinc-air battery using this catalyst (180 mW cm −2 ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]