Interfacial Defect Engineering for Improved Portable Zinc-Air Batteries with a Broad Working Temperature.

Atomic-thick interfacial dominated bifunctional catalyst NiO/CoO transition interfacial nanowires (TINWs) with abundant defect sites display high electroactivity and durability in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the excellent OER/ORR performance arises from the electron-rich interfacial region coupled with defect sites, thus enabling a fast-redox rate with lower activation barrier for fast electron transfer. When assembled as an air-electrode, NiO/CoO TINWs delivered the high specific capacity of 842.58 mAh gZn -1 , the large energy density of 996.44 Wh kgZn -1 with long-time stability of more than 33 h (25 °C), and superior performance at low (-10 °C) and high temperature (80 °C).

Uncovering the Promotion of CeO2 /CoS1.97 Heterostructure with Specific Spatial Architectures on Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Structural engineering and compositional controlling are extensively applied in rationally designing and fabricating advanced freestanding electrocatalysts. The key relationship between the spatial distribution of components and enhanced electrocatalysis performance still needs further elaborate elucidation. Here, CeO2 substrate supported CoS1.97 (CeO2 -CoS1.97 ) and CoS1.97 with CeO2 surface decorated (CoS1.97 -CeO2 ) materials are constructed to comprehensively investigate the origin of spatial architectures for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). CeO2 -CoS1.97 exhibits a low overpotential of 264 mV at 10 mA cm-2 due to the stable heterostructure and faster mass transfer. Meanwhile, CoS1.97 -CeO2 has a smaller Tafel slope of 49 mV dec-1 through enhanced adsorption of OH- , fast electron transfer, and in situ formation of Co(IV)O2 species under the OER condition. Furthermore, operando spectroscopic characterizations combined with theoretical calculations demonstrate that spatial architectures play a distinguished role in modulating the electronic structure and promoting the reconstruction from sulfide to oxyhydroxide toward higher chemical valence. The findings highlight spatial architectures and surface reconstruction in designing advanced electrocatalytic materials.