A Wide-Temperature Adaptive Aqueous Zinc-Air Battery-Based on Cu-Co Dual Metal-Nitrogen-Carbon/Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts

Zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are promising electrochemical energy storage devices, but the inherent semi-open configuration and catalytically dependent working principle make their performance vulnerable to temperature. Herein, a tunable multi-site electrocatalyst is manufactured as the cathode for wide-temperature adaptive aqueous ZABs, comprising Cu-Co dual metal-nitrogen-carbon-coupled with metal nanoparticles (CuCo-NC/NPs). The multi-components synergistically optimize the electronic structure of active sites in CuCo-NC/NPs, which endows them with low apparent activation energy (E-a) and high activity for oxygen reduction reaction. Moreover, the CuCo-NC/NPs-based aqueous ZABs demonstrate satisfactory stability over 540 h, and a high specific capacity of 806 mAh g(zn)(-1) at 10 mA cm(-2) at room temperature, outperforming that of Pt/C and many recent report catalysts based ZABs. Even at -30 and 60 degrees C, the assembled ZABs can deliver more than 88.1% and 95.5% of its room-temperature specific capacity, as well as superior cycling stability, paving the way for practical applications of aqueous ZABs under extreme conditions.