Exploring Cu-Doped Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Aqueous Zn–Air Batteries
Asutosh Behera, Deepak Seth, Manish Agarwal, M. Ali Haider, Aninda J. Bhattacharyya
Abstract
The efficiency of oxygen electrocatalysis is a key factor in diverse energy domain applications, including the performance of metal–air batteries, such as aqueous Zinc (Zn)–air batteries. We demonstrate here that the doping of cobalt oxide with optimal amounts of copper (abbreviated as Cu-doped Co 3 O 4 ) results in a stable and efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction (ORR) and evolution (OER) reactions in aqueous Zn–air batteries. At high Cu-doping concentrations (≥5%), phase segregation occurs with the simultaneous presence of Co 3 O 4 and copper oxide (CuO). At Cu-doping concentrations ≤5%, the Cu ion resides in the octahedral (O h ) site of Co 3 O 4, as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD)/Raman spectroscopy investigations and molecular dynamics (MD) calculations. The residence of Cu@O h sites leads to an increased concentration of surface Co 3+ -ions (at catalytically active planes) and oxygen vacancies, which is beneficial for the OER. Temperature-dependent magnetization measurements reveal favorable d -orbital configuration (high e g occupancy ≈ 1) and a low → high spin-state transition of the Co 3+ -ions, which are beneficial for the ORR in the alkaline medium. The influence of Cu-doping on the ORR activity of Co 3 O 4 is additionally accounted in DFT calculations via interactions between solvent water molecules and oxygen vacancies. The application of the bifunctional Cu-doped (≤5%) Co 3 O 4 electrocatalyst resulted in an aqueous Zn–air battery with promising power density (=84 mW/cm 2 ), stable cyclability (over 210 cycles), and low charge/discharge overpotential (=0.92 V).