Spinel-type metal oxide nanoparticles supported on platelet-type carbon nanofibers as a bifunctional catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Development of highly active bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is required for air electrodes of zinc-air secondary batteries (ZAB). In this study, we synthesize spinel-type MnCo2O4 (MCO) nanoparticles on highly graphitized platelet-type carbon nanofibers (pCNF) via a solvothermal method. The pCNF is selected as carbon support in this study because of the excellent stability against anodic degradation under the OER condition. The MCO nanoparticles of 2–5 nm in diameter are uniformly dispersed on pCNF and the catalyst exhibits high activities for ORR due to strong interaction pCNF and MCO, in addition to the improvement of OER activities. The MCO/carbon hybrids show comparable electrocatalytic performances to state-of-the-art bifunctional electrodes for OER and ORR.