MnO/Co Decorated N‐Doped Porous Carbon as Efficient Cathode Electrocatalyst in Rechargeable Zinc‐Air Batteries

Abstract Transition metal‐based catalysts have garnered extensive attention because of their outstanding bifunctional activity and affordability in the application of zinc‐air batteries. In this work, MnO/Co nanoparticles were grown on N‐doped porous carbon using zeolitic imidazolate framework as the precursor. The prepared bifunctional catalysts (MnO/Co@NC) exhibited superior ORR performance with a half‐wave potential reaching 0.867 V. It also showed considerable OER activity, with an overpotential of 348 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2. The improved electrocatalytic performance is attributed to the plenty Co/MnO interfaces in the hybrid structure, which helps to enhance electron interactions and accelerate kinetics by decreasing the energy barrier of reaction. The zinc‐air batteries using MnO/Co@NC as the air electrode demonstrated excellent battery performance, with a power density of 207 mW cm−2, a large specific capacity of 796 mAh g−1, and a long‐term durability for 417 h.