Manipulating the Electronic Structure of Graphite Intercalation Compounds for Boosting the Bifunctional Oxygen Catalytic Performance
Licheng Wei, Yufei Zhang, Yang Yang, Minghui Ye, Cheng Chao Li
Abstract
Abstract Developing highly efficient bifunctional catalysts for the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) can open possibilities for future zinc air batteries (ZABs). Herein, cost‐effective and highly conductive few‐layer ferric and nickel chloride co‐intercalated graphite intercalation compounds (FeCl 3 ‐NiCl 2 ‐GIC) are designed as bifunctional oxygen catalysts for ZAB. The optimized few‐layer FeCl 3 ‐NiCl 2 ‐GIC catalyst exhibits a small overpotential of 276 mV at 10 mA cm –2 for the OER and achieves a high onset potential of 0.89 V for the ORR. The theoretical analysis demonstrates the electron‐rich state on the carbon layers of FeCl 3 ‐NiCl 2 ‐GIC during the catalytic process favors the kinetics of electron transfer and lowers the absorption energy barriers for intermediates. Impressively, the ZAB assembled with few‐layer FeCl 3 ‐NiCl 2 ‐GIC catalyst displays a 160 h cycling stability and a high energy efficiency of 72.6%. This work also suggests the possibility of utilizing layer electronic structure regulation on graphite intercalation compounds as effective bifunctional catalysts for ZABs.