Ultralow palladium doped C4N as a potential bifunctional electrocatalyst for zinc-air battery.

• Pd doped C 4 N electrocatalyst is firstly prepared. • The Pd-C 4 N has a narrow Δ E of 0.76 V in 0.1 M KOH. • The Pd-C 4 N is a potential candidate for bifunctional electrocatalyst. It is an important task for designing a facile bifunctional electrocatalyst that is applied to a zinc-air battery (ZAB). Herein, the 2D C 4 N is synthesized by hydrothermal method, and ultralow noble metal palladium (Pd) is doped into the C 4 N to form Pd-C 4 N. The Pd-C 4 N has a low Δ E of 0.76 V in 0.1 M KOH, which is a good candidate as the bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in the ZABs. This work provides a design idea of modified carbon-based material for bifunctional electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]