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Research Article

Single copper sites dispersed on hierarchically porous carbon for improving oxygen reduction reaction towards zinc-air battery

Wenjie Wu1,§, Yan Liu2,§, Dong Liu3, Wenxing Chen4, Zhaoyi Song1, Ximin Wang1, Yamin Zheng2, Ning Lu2, Chunxia Wang1( ), Junjie Mao2( ), Yadong Li5
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, College of New Energy and Materials, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Key Laboratory of Functional Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Optoelectric Materials Science and Technology and Anhui Laboratory of Molecule-Based Materials, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241002, China
State key Lab of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

§ Wenjie Wu and Yan Liu contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

Abstract

The demand for high-performance non-precious-metal electrocatalysts to replace the noble metal-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is intensively increasing. Herein, single-atomic copper sites supported on N-doped three-dimensional hierarchically porous carbon catalyst (Cu1/NC) was prepared by coordination pyrolysis strategy. Remarkably, the Cu1/NC-900 catalyst not only exhibits excellent ORR performance with a half-wave potential of 0.894 V (vs. RHE) in alkaline media, outperforming those of commercial Pt/C (0.851 V) and Cu nanoparticles anchored on N-doped porous carbon (CuNPs/NC-900), but also demonstrates high stability and methanol tolerance. Moreover, the Cu1/NC-900 based Zn-air battery exhibits higher power density, rechargeability and cyclic stability than the one based on Pt/C. Both experimental and theoretical investigations demonstrated that the excellent performance of the as-obtained Cu1/NC-900 could be attributed to the synergistic effect between copper coordinated by three N atoms active sites and the neighbouring carbon defect, resulting in elevated Cu d-band centers of Cu atoms and facilitating intermediate desorption for ORR process. This study may lead towards the development of highly efficient non-noble metal catalysts for applications in electrochemical energy conversion.

Keywords

single atomic sites catalystsnitrogen-doped carbon materialsoxygen reduction reactioncarbon defectnon-noble metal

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Nano Research
Volume 14 Issue 4,
April 2021
Pages 998-1003
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-3141-x
Cite this article:
Wu W, Liu Y, Liu D, et al. Single copper sites dispersed on hierarchically porous carbon for improving oxygen reduction reaction towards zinc-air battery. Nano Research, 2021, 14(4): 998-1003. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-3141-x
Topics:
CarbonCopperDoping (additives)ElectrocatalystsElectrolytic reduction OxygenOxygen reduction reaction Porous materialsPrecious metalsZinc

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Received: 21 August 2020
Revised: 22 September 2020
Accepted: 23 September 2020
Published: 23 October 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
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