Metal-support interaction promoted multifunctional electrocatalysis on PtCo/NC with ultralow Pt loading for oxygen reduction reaction and zinc-air battery

Tri-functional PtCo/NC nanocatalysts were assembled via in-situ integration with ultralow Pt loading supported on ZIF-67 derived porous carbon material, and used as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Detailedly, PtCo-3/NC with ultralow Pt loading (1 wt%) exhibits the halfwave potential of 0.877 V for ORR in acidic media and considerable current density for both ORR and EOR at 0.85 V, and low overpotential (η10 =10 mV) for HER. The as-assembled zinc-air batteries (ZABs) based on PtCo/NC have higher power density than Pt/C based ZABs. DFT calculation reveals the strong metal-support interactions (MSI) in PtCo/NC, which leads to the change of electronic state, redistribution of charge density and optimization of free energy, allowing it to present greater performances than Pt/C. This work highlights the possibility of using it as highly effective electrode catalysts with ultralow Pt loading in fuel cells and metal-air battery.