CeO₂/Co₃O₄ p-n Heterojunction as a Photo-Responsive Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Efficient Zinc-Air Batteries

Abstract

The introduction of semiconductor materials as bifunctional oxygen reduction/evolution reaction (ORR/OER) electrodes has been proved as an efficient way to improve the reaction kinetics and reduce the overpotential of ORR/OER during the discharge/charge process of rechargeable zinc-air batteries (RZABs) by combining photochemistry and electrochemistry. Herein, a photo-responsive bifunctional ORR/OER electrocatalyst with CeO₂/Co₃O₄ p-n heterojunction has been constructed by a facile hydrothermal method for RZABs. Under illumination, photogenerated electrons have been demonstrated by the combination of in-situ XPS and in-situ XAS to transfer from Co₃O₄ to CeO₂, whereas the holes are in opposite directions, which is beneficial for the formation of built-in electric field and in turn promoting the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. Benefiting from the unique structural features, the resultant CeO₂/Co₃O₄ exhibits the photo-enhanced ORR/OER performance with half-wave potential of 0.794 V and overpotential of 360 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm⁻² as well as remarkable RZABs performance with the maximum power density of 207.85 mW cm⁻² and good round-trip efficiency under illumination.

Keywords

cerium oxide / cobalt oxide / photo enhanced / p-n heterojunction / Zn-air batteries

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2026 The Author(s). Energy & Environmental Materials published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Zhengzhou University.