Engineering Crystallinity and Oxygen Vacancies of Co(II) Oxide Nanosheets for High Performance and Robust Rechargeable Zn–Air Batteries

Abstract

Efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) processes highly rely on the rational design and synthesis of high‐performance electrocatalysts. Herein, comprehensive characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations are combined to verify the important roles of the crystallinity and oxygen vacancy levels of Co(II) oxide (CoO) on ORR and OER activities. A facile and controllable vacuum‐calcination strategy is utilized to convert Co(OH)2 into oxygen‐defective amorphous‐crystalline CoO (namely ODAC‐CoO) nanosheets. With the carefully controlled crystallinity and oxygen vacancy levels, the optimal ODAC‐CoO sample exhibits dramatically enhanced ORR and OER electrocatalytic activities compared with the pure crystalline CoO counterpart. The assembled liquid and quasi‐solid‐state Zn–air batteries with ODAC‐CoO as cathode material achieve remarkable specific capacity, power density, and excellent cycling stability, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C+IrO2 catalysts. This study theoretically proposes and experimentally demonstrates that the simultaneous introduction of amorphous structures and oxygen vacancies could be an effective avenue towards high‐performance electrocatalytic ORR and OER.