Self-Supported ZIF-Derived Co₃O₄ Nanoparticles-Decorated Porous N-Doped Carbon Fibers as Oxygen Reduction Catalyst

Oxygen reduction is a significant cathodic reaction in the state-of-art clean energy devices such as fuel cell and metal–oxygen battery. Here, ZIF-incorporated hybrid polymeric fibres have been fabricated by using a dual-phase electrospinning method. These are then transformed into Co₃O₄-nanoparticle-decorated porous N-doped carbon fibres (ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF) through multi-step annealing treatment. The resultant ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF is interweaved into a self-supported film and can be used as a bi-functional catalyst for catalysing oxygen reduction in both aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes. Electrochemical tests demonstrate that ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF displays a high catalytic activity for oxygen reduction with a half-wave potential (E_1/2) of 0.813 V (vs. RHE) and an almost favourable four-electron reduction pathway in alkaline medium. ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF catalyst only shows 4 mV negative shift of E_1/2 after 5000 continuous CV cycles. In addition, the ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF can be applied as the cathode catalyst of non-aqueous Li–O₂ battery, exhibiting a remarkable ORR activity in LiPF₆ contained 1,2-dimethoxyethane electrolyte. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of ZIF-Co₃O₄/NCF is probably due to the abundance of active sites of graphitic carbon-wrapped Co₃O₄ nanoparticles, as well as the cross-linked fibrous nitrogen-doped carbon texture.