A bimetallic-activated MnO₂ self-assembly electrode with a dual heterojunction structure for high-performance rechargeable zinc-air batteries

Abstract

A major challenge in developing zinc-air batteries (ZABs) is to exploit suitable cathodes to efficiently accelerate the key electrocatalytic processes involved. Herein, a bifunctional oxygen catalytic self-supported MnO₂-based electrode is designed that displays superior oxygen reduction and evolution reaction performance over noble metal electrodes with a total overpotential of 0.69 V. In addition, the as-synthesized NiCo₂O₄@MnO₂/carbon nanotube (CNT)-Ni foam self-supported electrode can be directly used as an oxygen electrode without externally adding carbon or a binder and shows reasonable battery performance with a high peak power density of 226 mW cm^-2 and a long-term charge-discharge cycling lifetime (5 mA for 160 h). As expected, the rapid oxygen catalytic intrinsic kinetics and high battery performance of the NiCo₂O₄@MnO₂/CNTs-Ni foam electrode originates from the unique three-dimensional hierarchical structure, which effectively promotes mass transfer. Furthermore, the CNTs combined with Ni foam form a unique “meridian” conductive structure that enables rapid electron conduction. Finally, the abundant Mn³⁺ active sites activated by bimetallic ions shorten the oxygen catalytic reaction distance between the active sites and reactant and reduce the surface activity of MnO₂ for the O, OH, and OOH species. This work not only offers a high-performance bifunctional self-supported electrode for ZABs but also opens new insights into the activation of Mn-based electrodes.

Keywords

Zinc-air batteries / bimetallic activation / self-supported electrode / heterojunction / hierarchical structure

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