Pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen-enriched carbon paper as a highly active bifunctional catalyst for Zn-air batteries

Pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen are recognized as the most promising dopants for promoting oxygen reactions since they are beneficial to the formation of corresponding C–N bonds as efficient active sites. However, complete control of such efficient nitrogen-doping sites in carbon materials is difficult to realize in practice in a pyrolysis process . Here, we present maximized pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen-doped oxygen electrode via the precise use of nitrogen-containing precursors and carbonization temperature. The critical roles of pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen dopants in enhancing oxygen reaction activity are unraveled and this highly active material exhibits a remarkable half-wave potential of 0.89 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and a small potential gap of 0.78 V between ORR and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in 0.1 M KOH, which is one of the best to date among metal-free bifunctional electrocatalysts . Both zinc-air batteries using liquid electrolytes and the all-solid-state batteries assembled with such air cathodes exhibit excellent cycle performance and reversibility, which can be expressly observed by in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization. This nitrogen dopants engineering strategy gives an effective methodology to make full use of nanocarbon materials for their practical applications in next-generation powerful and durable energy devices.