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Published on: September 29, 2020
Hierarchically Social Self-Sorted Bifunctional Electrocatalyst Based on Metal-Phenolic Polymers for Rechargeable
Li-Wei Wang1, Hao-Bo Zhang1, Jia-Hui Yuan1
1College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, College of Energy Storage, College of Sciences, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Self-sorting is a one-pot process for constructing composites in which the multicomponents can aggregate into ordered structures without mutual interference. Herein, we report the self-sorting synthesis of a bifunctional catalyst towards oxygen evolution/reduction reaction (OER/ORR) based on two natural products, Co(OAc)2 and carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In this procedure, ellagic acid (EA) coordinated with Co2+ to obtain the coordination polymer (CP) and self-assembled into nanosheets that exhibited better OER performance than IrO2. Hematoxylin (HTL) and Co2+ formed the other CPs, which were co-assembled with CNTs into a coaxial structure for enhanced ORR activity. The composite catalyst, which possess a low ORR/OER potential gap of 0.70 V, was further used in the air cathode of zinc-air batteries (ZABs), exhibiting an open-circuit voltage of 1.41 V and remarkable cycling stability over 300 h, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C + IrO2 ZAB. This self-sorting strategy not only expands the application of natural products in sustainable energy technology, but also provides a new perspective for designing highly ordered composites as functional materials.
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