Screening and Coupling Effects Jointly Construct Heteroatom Doping to Facilitate Efficient Bi‐Functional Catalysis in Zinc–Air Batteries

ABSTRACT The zinc‐air batteries exhibit great development potential because of high‐energy density, safety, and environmental protection. However, they are constrained by the high cost of precious catalysts and the slow kinetics of oxygen electrocatalysis. The current preparation process of bi‐functional catalysts with considerable performance has poor universality and is difficult to achieve large‐scale production. Herein, carbon materials doped with heteroatoms (C&H) were synthesized through screening of element redox reaction tendencies and the strategy of cooperative construction. The synergistic coupling of carbon substrate, transition metals, and non‐metals jointly achieves excellent bi‐functional oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activities. Compared to commercial 20% Pt/C‐RuO ₂ , C&H‐300 demonstrates higher power density (123 mW cm ⁻² ), specific capacity (745.5 mAh g _Zn ⁻¹ ), ultra‐long cycle life of over 1200 h at 10.0 mA cm ⁻² , which is superior to most related reports in the same field. Moreover, the assembled flexible zinc‐air battery with C&H‐300 shows no significant performance decline after undergoing a series of deformations. This study provides a simple and feasible strategy for the efficient and large‐scale preparation of highly efficient non‐noble metal bi‐functional catalysts.