N-doped Nanocarbon Inserted NiCo-LDH Nanoplates on NF with High OER/ORR Performances for Zinc-Air Battery

Graphical High OER/ORR performances : boosted oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) as well as optimized oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and high-activity zinc-air batteries (ZAB), from a nitrogen-doped carbon nanomaterial (NCM) inserted Ni−Co layered double hydroxide (NiCo-LDH) electrocatalyst on nickel foam are achieved. The super thin NCM prepared by calcination of self-assembled perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride/dicyandiamide improves the conductivity, electroactive surface area of NiCo-LDH nanoplates. Herein, a high performance bifunctional catalyst was prepared by inserting N-doped nanomaterials into Ni−Co layered dihydroxides (NiCo-LDH) nanoplates for high performance zinc-air battery. By using self-assembly of perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride and dicyandiamide in the hydrothermal condition, a nitrogen-containing super thin carbonaceous nanosheet is achieved after calcination. Then NCM inserted NiCo-LDH nanoplates attached to nickel foam (NiCo-LDH/NCM@NF) are synthesized by in-situ production of NiCo-LDH species on NCM wrapped NF. The specific NCM improves the conductivity, electroactive surface area and the ORR/OER bifunctional activity of NiCo-LDH nanoplates. In addition, benefited from the formed rich oxygen vacancies, NiCo-LDH/NCM@NF delivers the low OER overpotential (352 mV at 50 mA cm −2 ) and boosted ORR performance with a half-wave potential of 0.765 V vs RHE. As the air cathode, the fabricated ZAB devices show a satisfactory capacity of 685 mAh g −1 and the energy density of 158 mW cm −2 .