Development of Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysts for Electrically Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries

Monday, 10 October 2022
K. Mathialagan (CSIR-Central electrochemical research institute, Academy of scientific and innovative research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad), S. Thankappakurup (CSIR-Central electrochemical research institute), A. Surendran (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad), D. Dixon (CSIR-Central electrochemical research institute), N. S.T. (CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Tamil Nadu, India), and A. Bhaskar (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad)
Zinc-air battery is a promising battery system as it possesses high theoretical energy density and is cost-effective3. The theoretical energy density of a Zinc-air battery is 1086 Wh kg-1, which is five times greater than that of lithium-ion batteries2. Moreover, zinc metal is one of the most abundant metals in the earth’s crust and is inexpensive. Rechargeable metal-air batteries operate based on two fundamental electrochemical reactions as Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) during discharge and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) during recharge processes, respectively3. Electrocatalytic activity of the bifunctional electrocatalyst towards these two oxygen reactions will decide the performance of the battery1. Recent advancements in catalyst development are the fabrication of rechargeable air electrodes using a single active material that is capable of bifunctionally catalyzing ORR and OER3. The development of bifunctional catalysts with high activity is necessary for rechargeable metal-air batteries, such as zinc-air batteries3.

In this work, a perovskite-type LaFeO3 material was synthesized using a citric acid-assisted sol-gel method and is investigated as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst for electrically rechargeable zinc-air batteries. Structural studies using X-ray diffraction revealed the formation of phase pure LaFeO3 in space group Pbnm. This catalyst displayed considerable bifunctional catalytic activity for both oxygen reduction (0.74 V vs. RHE) and oxygen evolution reactions (0.40 V vs. RHE at 10 mA cm-2) in 1 M KOH electrolyte. Electrically rechargeable zinc-air batteries assembled using LaFeO3 as the oxygen electrocatalyst deliver a specific capacity of 936.38 mAh g(Zn) -1 after the 1st discharge. Further details will be discussed in the poster.

Financial support from Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India under research grant number DST/TMD/MECSP/2K17/20 is gratefully acknowledged.

References:

[01] Y. Li, M. Gong, et. al., Nature communications, 4, (2013), 1-7

[02] P. Gu, M. Zheng, et. al., Journal of Material Chemistry, (2017), 1-17

[03] D. U. Lee, P. Xu, et. al., Journal of Material Chemistry, 4, (2016), 7107-7134

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