Integrated N-Co/Carbon Nanofiber Cathode for Highly Efficient Zinc–Air Batteries

In order to reduce the charge-transfer resistance, ohmic resistance, and ionic and electronic resistances arising from the polymer binder, designing and constructing self-standing and binder-free porous electrodes are very significant for energy storage and conversion devices. Herein, self-standing and binder-free porous N-Co carbon nanofiber (N-Co/CNF) cathodes are prepared for zinc–air batteries (ZABs) by an in situ electrospinning/plasma-etching method. The morphology and activity of the prepared electrodes are investigated by several characterization techniques. The prepared specimens exhibit a multilayered CNF structure, and a new CoN compound is produced after plasma-etching treatment. The N-Co/CNF-300-10 cathode demonstrates excellent electrocatalytic performance toward oxygen reduction reaction, with an onset potential and a half-wave potential of 0.995 and 0.853 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode), respectively, which is comparable to that of 20% Pt/C. The N-Co/CNF-300-10 cathode acting as a self-standing electrode for ZABs exhibits a maximum discharge power density as high as 229 mW cm–2 and a specific capacity of 659.6 mA h gZn–1, which are much higher than those of the commercial catalysts, benefiting from the self-standing porous structure, N-doping, and more defects and active sites induced by plasma-etching. It provides an effective way to construct a self-standing porous electrode with controllable compositions for rechargeable metal–air batteries.