Single-atom lanthanum on 2D N-doped graphene oxide as a novel bifunctional electrocatalyst for rechargeable zinc–air battery

Conventional carbon materials have poor electrocatalytic performance due to few active sites. Herein, a rare-earth lanthanum (La) is introduced into the N-doped graphene oxide (NGO) to form the single-atom 2D [email protected] We analyze the properties of [email protected] series and find that 7%[email protected] shows the most excellent oxygen reduction reaction performances with a half-wave potential up to 0.86 V, outstanding stability, and methanol tolerance in 0.1 M KOH, which are all superior to those of commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst. In addition, 7%[email protected] shows good bifunctional electrocatalytic behaviors with a low ΔE of 0.72 V. The rechargeable zinc–air battery assembled by 7%[email protected] possesses a high power density of 80.9 mW/cm2, a large specific capacity of 640 mAh/g, a high rechargeable efficiency of 55.2%, as excellent cycling stability.