Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 16, 2025
Zinc-Sponge Battery Electrodes that Suppress Dendrites
Published on: September 29, 2020
Efficient Bifunctional Catalytic Electrodes with Uniformly Distributed NiN2 Active Sites and Channels for
Zihe Cai1, Shengxuan Lin1, Jiajia Xiao1
1State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Abstract:
Freestanding bifunctional electrodes with outstanding oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) properties are of great significance for zinc-air batteries, attributed to the avoided use of organic binder and strong adhesion with substrates. Herein, a strategy is developed to fabricate freestanding bifunctional electrodes from the predeposited nickel nanoparticles (Ni-NCNT) on carbon fiber paper. The steric effect of monodispersed SiO2 nanospheres limits the configuration of carbon atoms forming 3D interconnected nanotubes with uniformly distributed NiN2 active sites. The bifunctional electrodes (Ni-NCNT) demonstrate ideal ORR and OER properties. The zinc-air batteries assembled with Ni-NCNT directly exhibit extremely outstanding long term stability (2250 cycles with 10 mA cm-2 charge/discharge current density) along with high power density of 120 mV cm-2 and specific capacity of 834.1 mA h g-1 . This work provides a new view to optimize the distribution of active sites and the electrode structure.
Related Concept Videos
03:12Batteries and Fuel Cells
02:47Voltaic/Galvanic Cells
Spontaneous redox reactions occur abundantly in nature. The chemical reaction occurring in a disposable AA battery powering our remote controls is one such example of a spontaneous redox reaction. Another example is the immersion of coiled copper wire into an aqueous silver nitrate solution. The reaction shows a gradual, visually impressive color change from colorless to bright blue and the formation of a grey precipitate on the copper wire. In this experiment,...