A Wide‐Temperature Adaptive Aqueous Zinc‐Air Battery‐Based on Cu–Co Dual Metal–Nitrogen‐Carbon/Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts
Jinxiu Feng, Dong Zheng, Ruilian Yin, Xinxin Niu, Xilian Xu, Shibo Meng, Suli Ma, Wenhui Shi, Fangfang Wu, Wenxian Liu, Xiehong Cao
Abstract
Zinc‐air batteries (ZABs) are promising electrochemical energy storage devices, but the inherent semi‐open configuration and catalytically dependent working principle make their performance vulnerable to temperature. Herein, a tunable multi‐site electrocatalyst is manufactured as the cathode for wide‐temperature adaptive aqueous ZABs, comprising Cu–Co dual metal–nitrogen–carbon‐coupled with metal nanoparticles (CuCo‐NC/NPs). The multi‐components synergistically optimize the electronic structure of active sites in CuCo‐NC/NPs, which endows them with low apparent activation energy ( E a ) and high activity for oxygen reduction reaction. Moreover, the CuCo‐NC/NPs‐based aqueous ZABs demonstrate satisfactory stability over 540 h, and a high specific capacity of 806 mAh g zn −1 at 10 mA cm −2 at room temperature, outperforming that of Pt/C and many recent report catalysts based ZABs. Even at −30 and 60 °C, the assembled ZABs can deliver more than 88.1% and 95.5% of its room‐temperature specific capacity, as well as superior cycling stability, paving the way for practical applications of aqueous ZABs under extreme conditions.