Engineering of the Heterointerface of Porous Carbon Nanofiber–Supported Nickel and Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle for Highly Efficient Bifunctional Oxygen Catalysis

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 30; no. 13
• Main Authors: Ji, Dongxiao, Sun, Jianguo, Tian, Lidong, Chinnappan, Amutha, Zhang, Tianran, Jayathilaka, Wanasinghe Arachchige Dumith Madushanka, Gosh, Rituparana, Baskar, Chinnappan, Zhang, Qiuyu, Ramakrishna, Seeram
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2020
• Subjects: Anchoring; bifunctional catalysts; Bimetals; Carbon; Carbon fibers; Carbon nanotubes; Catalysis; Catalysts; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemical analysis; electrospinning; heterointerfaces; Manganese oxides; Materials science; Metal air batteries; Metal compounds; metal/metal oxide hybrids; Nanofibers; Nanoparticles; Nickel; Oxygen evolution reactions; Zinc-oxygen batteries; zinc–air batteries
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201910568

Constructing heterointerfaces between metals and metal compounds is an attractive strategy for the fabrication of high performance electrocatalysts. However, realizing the high degree of fusion of two different metal components to form heterointerfaces remains a great challenge, since the different metal components tend to grow separately in most cases. Herein, by employing carboxyl‐modified carbon nanotubes to stabilize different metal ions, the engineering of abundant Ni|MnO heterointerfaces is achieved in porous carbon nanofibers (Ni|MnO/CNF) during the electrospinning–calcination process. Remarkably, the resulting Ni|MnO/CNF catalyst exhibits activities that are among the best reported for the catalysis of both the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions. Moreover, the catalyst also demonstrates high power density and long cycle life in Zn–air batteries. Its superior electrochemical properties are mainly ascribed to the synergy between the engineering of oxygen‐deficient Ni|MnO heterointerfaces with a strong Ni/Mn alloying interaction and the 1D porous CNF support. This facile anchoring strategy for the initiation of bimetallic heterointerfaces creates appealing opportunities for the potential use of heteronanomaterials in practical sustainable energy applications. A carboxyl anchoring strategy is developed to synthesize a Ni/MnO heterointerface within distinctively porous carbon nanofibers. Benefiting from the enhanced dissimilar metal interfacial interactions, the resultant hybrid catalyst exhibits excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic activities toward oxygen reduction/evolution reactions. A zinc–air battery based on the catalyst shows high power density and long cycle life.