N- & S-co-doped carbon nanofiber network embedded with ultrafine NiCo nanoalloy for efficient oxygen electrocatalysis and Zn–air batteries
Chaojun Liu, Zhuang Wang, Xin Zong, Yingmin Jin, Dong Li, Yueping Xiong, Gang Wu
Abstract
A novel 3D N- & S-co-doped carbon nanofiber network embedded with ultrafine NiCo oxide nanoparticles is explored by a facile surfactant-assisted electrospinning method. This catalyst has several structural advantages including ultrafine active sites (2-8 nm), hierarchical pores, and abundant defects, allowing for much higher OER/ORR activity compared to commercial IrO2 and Pt/C catalysts. The potential gap (ΔE) of OER and ORR metrics for NSCFs/Ni-Co-NiCo2O is 0.69 V and the Zn-air battery equipped with NSCFs/Ni-Co-NiCo2O as the air cathode delivers a maximum power density of 171.24 mW cm-2 at 268 mA cm-2. Furthermore, the unique structure of the 3D carbon nanofiber network embedded with ultrafine nanoparticles results in superior stability with negligible degradation in activity after 380 h of continuous operation.