Controlled Synthesis of Co@N-Doped Carbon by Pyrolysis of ZIF with 2-Aminobenzimidazole Ligand for Enhancing Oxygen Reduction Reaction and the Application in Zn–Air Battery
Minghui Zhang, Erhuan Zhang, Chunyan Hu, Yong Zhao, Hanming Zhang, Yijie Zhang, Muwei Ji, Jiali Yu, Guangtao Cong, Huichao Liu, Jiatao Zhang, Caizhen Zhu, Jian Xu
Abstract
The Co/N-doped carbon material, as an important electrocatalytic material, has been attracted intense interest in ORR and Zn–air battery. Here, we report an efficient Co@N-doped carbon catalyst (Co@N-C-1) obtained by pyrolysis of ZIF precursor with 2-aminobenzimidazole. The introduction of 2-aminobenzimidazole results in the formation of hierarchical meso/microporous structure of the as-prepared Co@N-C-1, effectively avoiding the aggregation of Co nanoparticles during pyrolysis and the higher N content, which contributes to enhance the ORR electrocatalytic activities. The obtained Co@N-C-1 exhibits remarkable ORR performance with a half-wave potential of 0.938 V vs RHE in alkaline media. As the air catalyst of zinc–air batteries, Co@N-C-1 displays 1.439 V of open-circuit voltage and 1413.3 Wh·kg–1 of energy density.