Fe doped Co9S8 nanoparticles embedded in N, S co-doped porous carbon as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for rechargeable Zn-air batteries

Transition metal sulfides embedded in co-doped porous carbon materials with nitrogen and sulfur are a promising catalyst that can effectively solve the problem of slow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics. However, monometallic sulfides consisting of a single active component only have monofunctional catalytic activity and cannot effectively increase the rate of oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thus limiting the energy conversion efficiency of Zn-air batteries (ZAB). Herein, a unique silica template assisted in situ pyrolysis strategy is used to synthesize iron (Fe)-doped cobalt sulfide (Co9S8) nanoparticle embedded in a honeycomb nitrogen (N), sulphur (S) co-doped porous carbon (Fe/Co9S8@NSC) electrocatalyst. The introduction of Fe increases the active component of the catalyst and further enhances the catalytic ability of Co9S8 by optimizing the electronic structure through charge transfer effect. Therefore, the rich active sites of Fe/Co9S8 nanoparticles anchored in N, S co-doped carbon materials with rich pore structure enable the catalysts to have good bifunctional catalytic activities of ORR and OER. In particular, the Fe/Co9S8@NSC has a high half-wave potential of 0.82 V for catalytic ORR and only needs low overpotential of 332 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for catalytic OER. In addition, the Fe/Co9S8@NSC catalyst based rechargeable ZAB also exhibits a significant specific capacity of 734 mAh g−1 and prolonged stability of 270 h, which outperforms the bulk of recently reported catalysts based on transition metal sulfides-based catalysts. This research offers a workable method for producing metal sulfides catalysts with bifunctional catalytic activity.