Lanthanum modified Fe3N/carbon foam as highly efficient electrode for zinc-air batteries

Efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and evolution (OER) are of great importance large-scale application rechargeable zinc-air batteries. Iron-nitrogen-carbon materials known their excellent ORR catalytic activity, but it is low OER performance that responsible poor charging operation causing slow market adoption these energy storage devices. Herein, lanthanum (La) applied to enhance electrocatalytic properties iron-nitrogen-carbon used as battery electrodes. According X-ray diffractometry, presence La alters electronic structure surrounding N Fe elements, resulting in more negative positive ions appear on surface form Fe3N active species. Electrochemical analysis demonstrated enhanced bi-functional La-modified carbon foam (La-Fe0.1:1/NFC) which total overpotential was among lowest previously reported metal-nitrogen-carbon materials. La-Fe0.1:1/NFC exhibited high power density charge-discharge cycling stability a real cell.