Zhengkun Yang1, Changming Zhao1, Yunteng Qu1, Huang Zhou1, Fangyao Zhou1, Jing Wang1, Yuen Wu1, Yadong Li2
1School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
2Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Tóm tắt
AbstractThe development of robust and efficient trifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen reaction (HER) is central to regenerative metal–air batteries and overall water splitting. It is still a big challenge to achieve an efficient integration of three functions in one freestanding electrode. Herein, a facile and upscalable strategy is demonstrated, to construct cobalt nanoparticle‐encapsulated 3D conductive films (Co/CNFs), which were induced by in situ solid diffusion from bulk cobalt metal. Under high‐temperature, volatile cobalt species from bulk cobalt foil are trapped by the contacted nitrogen‐rich carbons, followed by catalytic growth of interconnected carbon tubes, forming the 3D structured film. This resulting film can be directly preformed as self‐supporting and binder‐free electrode, which simultaneously facilitates the ORR, OER, and HER with excellent activities and superior stability. Furthermore, such “all‐in‐one” film also exhibits remarkable performance for Zn–air batteries and overall water splitting, demonstrating its feasibility for practical applications.
