Modularization of Regional Electronic Structure over Defect-Rich CeO2 Rods for Enhancing Photogenerated Charge Transfer and CO2 Activation.

Oxygen vacancy (OV) engineering has been widely applied in different types of metal oxide-based photocatalytic reactions. Our study has shown that the redistributed OVs resulting from voids in CeO2 rods lead to significant differences in the band structure in space. The flat energy band within the highly crystallized bulk region hinders the recombination of photogenerated carrier pairs during the transfer process. The downward curved energy band in the surface region enhances the activation of the absorbents. Therefore, the localization of the band structure through crystal structure regionalization renders V-CeO2 capable of achieving efficient utilization of photogenerated carriers. Practically, the V-CeO2 rod shows a remarkable turnover number of 190.58 µmol g-1 h-1 in CO2 photoreduction, which is ∼9.4 times higher than that of D-CeO2 (20.46 µmol g-1 h-1). The designed modularization structure in our work is expected to provide important inspiration and guidance in coordinating the kinetic behavior of carriers in OV defect-rich photocatalysts.

Synchronizing Efficient Purification of VOCs in Durable Solar Water Evaporation over a Highly Stable Cu/W18O49@Graphene Material.

Solar-driven clean water production is challenged by VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which pose health risks in distilled water. Herein, we developed a Cu/W18O49@Graphene photothermal-photocatalytic material addressing VOCs contamination. Plasmonic coupling between Cu and W18O49 enhances light absorption, and 1-2 layers of graphene encapsulation protects oxygen vacancies within W18O49 while facilitating hot electron extraction, effectively mitigating their ultrafast relaxation. Density functional theory calculations revealed enhanced VOCs adsorption on graphene. These synergies address oxygen vacancy decay in W18O49 and provide more active sites for gas-liquid-solid triphase photocatalytic reactions. Integrated with a three-dimensional floating evaporator substrate, the optimized Cu/W18O49@Graphene material achieved an effective water evaporation rate of 1.41 kg m-2 h-1 (efficiency of 88.6%), exceptional stability (>120 h), and remarkable 99% phenol removal under 1 sun irradiation (1 kW m-2). This work provides a promising solution to mitigate VOCs contamination in solar-driven water evaporation.

Oxygen Vacancy Piezoelectric Nanosheets Constructed by a Photoetching Strategy for Ultrasound "Unlocked" Tumor Synergistic Therapy.

Piezoelectric dynamic therapy (PzDT) is an effective method of tumor treatment by using piezoelectric polarization to generate reactive oxygen species. In this paper, two-dimensional Cu-doped BiOCl nanosheets with surface vacancies are produced by the photoetching strategy. Under ultrasound, a built-in electric field is generated to promote the electron and hole separation. The separated carriers achieve O2 reduction and GSH oxidation, inducing oxidative stress. The bandgap of BiOCl is narrowed by introducing surface oxygen vacancies, which act as charge traps and facilitate the electron and hole separation. Meanwhile, Cu doping induces chemodynamic therapy and depletes GSH via the transformation from Cu(II) to Cu(I). Both in vivo and in vitro results confirmed that oxidative stress can be enhanced by exogenous ultrasound stimulation, which can cause severe damage to tumor cells. This work emphasizes the efficient strategy of doping engineering and defect engineering for US-activated PzDT under exogenous stimulation.

Hematite Hollow-Sphere-Array Photoanodes for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting.

Constructing 3D nanophotonic structures is regarded as an effective method to realize efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion. These photonic structures can enhance the absorbance of photoelectrodes by the light trapping effect, promote the charge separation by designable charge transport pathway and provide a high specific surface area for catalytic reaction. However, most 3D structures reported so far mainly focused on the influence of light absorption and lacked a systematic investigation of the overall water splitting process. Herein, hematite hollow-sphere-array photoanodes are fabricated through a facile hydrothermal method with polystyrene templates. Validating by simulations and experiments, the hollow sphere array is proved to enhance the efficiency of light harvesting, charge separation and surface reaction at the same time. With an additional annealing treatment in oxygen, a photocurrent density of 2.26 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode can be obtained, which is 3.70 times larger than that with a planar structure in otherwise the same system. This work gains an insight into the photoelectrochemical water splitting process, which is valuable for the further design of advancing solar driven water splitting devices.

Tuning Iron Active Sites of FeOOH via Al3+ and Heteroatom Doping-Induced Asymmetric Oxygen Vacancy Electronic Structure for Efficient Alkaline Water Splitting.

Oxygen evolution reaction is the essential anodic reaction for water splitting. Designing tunable electronic structures to overcome its slow kinetics is an effective strategy. Herein, the molecular ammonium iron sulfate dodecahydrate is employed as the precursor to synthesize the C, N, S triatomic co-doped Fe(Al)OOH on Ni foam (C,N,S-Fe(Al)OOH-NF) with asymmetric electronic structure. Both in situ oxygen vacancies and their special electronic configuration enable the electron transfer between the d-p orbitals and get the increase of OER activity. Density functional theory calculation further indicates the effect of electronic structure on catalytic activity and stability at the oxygen vacancies. In alkaline solution, the catalyst C,N,S-Fe(Al)OOH-NF shows good catalytic activity and stability for water splitting. For OER, the overpotential of 10 mA cm-2 is 264 mV, the tafel slope is 46.4 mV dec-1, the HER overpotential of 10 mA cm-2 is 188 mV, the tafel slope is 59.3 mV dec-1. The stability of the catalyst can maintain ≈100 h. This work has extraordinary implications for understanding the mechanistic relationship between electronic structure and catalytic activity for designing friendly metal (oxy)hydroxide catalysts.

Oxygen-Vacancy-Reinforced Vanadium Oxide/Graphene Heterojunction for Accelerated Zinc Storage with Long Life Span.

Vanadium trioxide (V6 O13 ) cathode has recently aroused intensive interest for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) due to their structural and electrochemical diversities. However, it undergoes sluggish reaction kinetics and significant capacity decay during prolonged cycling. Herein, an oxygen-vacancy-reinforced heterojunction in V6 O13- x /reduced graphene oxide (rGO) cathode is designed through electrostatic assembly and annealing strategy. The abundant oxygen vacancies existing in V6 O13- x weaken the electrostatic attraction with the inserted Zn2+ ; the external electric field constructed by the heterointerfaces between V6 O13- x and rGO provides additional built-in driving force for Zn2+ migration; the oxygen-vacancy-enriched V6 O13- x highly dispersed on rGO fabricates the interconnected conductive network, which achieves rapid Zn2+ migration from heterointerfaces to lattice. Consequently, the obtained 2D heterostructure exhibits a remarkable capacity of 424.5 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 , and a stable capacity retention (96% after 5800 cycles) at the fast discharge rate of 10 A g-1 . Besides, a flexible pouch-type AZIB with real-life practicability is fabricated, which can successfully power commercial products, and maintain stable zinc-ion storage performances even under bending, heavy strikes, and pressure condition. A series of quantitative investigation of pouch batteries demonstrates the possibility of pushing pouch-type AZIBs to realistic energy storage market.

Oxygen Vacancy-Enhanced Centrosymmetric Breaking of SrFeO3- x for Piezoelectric-Catalyzed Synthesis of H2O2.

Normally, only noncentrosymmetric structure of the materials can potentially be piezoelectric. Thus, it is limited in the field of piezoelectricity for the centrosymmetric structure of the material. In this work, the performance of piezoelectricity is successfully achieved from centrosymmetric SrFeO3- x by modulating oxygen vacancies, which have a surface piezoelectric potential up to 93 mV by using Kelvin-probe force microscopy (KPFM). Moreover, the piezoelectric effects of SrFeO3- x are also evaluated by piezoelectric catalytic effect and density functional theory calculations (DFT). The results show that the piezo-catalytic degradation of tetracycline reaches 96% after 75 min by ultrasonic mechanical vibration and the production of H2O2 by SrFeO3- x piezoelectric synthesis could reach 1821 µmol L-1. In addition, the DFT results indicate that the intrinsic effect of oxygen vacancies effectively promotes the adsorption and activation of O2 and H2O as well as intermediates and improves the piezoelectric catalytic activity. This work provides an effective basis for realizing the piezoelectricity of centrosymmetric materials and regulating the development of piezoelectric catalytic properties.

Exceptional Hole-Selective Properties of Ta2O5 Films via Sn4+ Doping for High Performance Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells.

Carrier-selective passivating contacts using transition metal oxides (TMOs) have attracted great attention for crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterojunction solar cells recently. Among them, tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) exhibits outstanding advantages, such as a wide bandgap, good surface passivation, and a small conduction band offset with c-Si, which is typically used as an electron-selective contact layer. Interestingly, it is first demonstrated that solution-processed Ta2O5 films exhibit a high hole selectivity, which blocks electrons and promotes hole transport simultaneously. Through the ozone pre-treatment of Ta2O5/p-Si interface and optimization of the film thickness (≈9 nm), the interfacial recombination is suppressed and the contact resistivity is reduced from 178.0 to 29.3 mΩ cm2. Moreover, the Sn4+ doping increases both the work function and oxygen vacancies of the film, contributing to the improved hole-selective contact performance. As a result, the photoelectric conversion efficiencies of Ta2O5/p-Si heterojunction solar cells are significantly improved from 14.84% to 18.47%, with a high thermal stability up to 300 °C. The work has provided a feasible strategy to explore new features of TMOs for carrier-selective contact applications, that is, bipolar carrier transport properties.

Modulating the Moderate d-Band Center of Indium in InVO4 Nanobelts by Synergizing MnOx and Oxygen Vacancies for High-Efficiency CO2 Photoreduction.

Modulating the electronic properties of transition metal sites in photocatalysts at the atomic level is essential for achieving high-activity carbon dioxide photoreduction (CO2PR). An electronic strategy is herein proposed to engineer In-d-band center of InVO4 by incorporating MnOx nanoparticles and oxygen vacancies (VO) into holey InVO4 nanobelts (MnOx/VO-InVO4), which synergistically modulates the In-d-band center to a moderate level and consequently leads to high-efficiency CO2PR. The MnOx/VO-InVO4 catalyst with optimized electronic property exhibits a single carbon evolution rate of up to 145.3 µmol g-1 h-1 and a carbon monoxide (CO) product selectivity of 92.6%, coming out in front of reported InVO4-based materials. It is discovered that the modulated electronic property favors the interaction between the In sites and their intermediates, which thereby improves the thermodynamics and kinetics of the CO2PR-to-CO reaction. This work not only demonstrates the effective engineering of the d orbital of the low-coordination In atoms to promote CO2PR, but also paves the way for the application of tuning d-band center to develop high-efficiency catalysts.

Boosting Efficient Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of CoFe-Layered Double Hydroxides Nanosheets via Co-Coordination Mechanism of W-Doping and Oxygen Defect Engineering.

While surface defects and heteroatom doping exhibit promising potential in augmenting the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), their performance remains unable to rival that of the costly Pt-based catalysts. Yet, the concurrent modification of catalysts by integrating both approaches stands as a promising strategy to effectively address the aforementioned limitation. In this work, tungsten dopants are introduced into self-supported CoFe-layered double hydroxides (LDH) on nickel foam using a hydrothermal method, and oxygen vacancies (Ov) are further introduced through calcination. The analysis results demonstrated that tungsten doping reduces the Ov formation energy of CoFeW-LDH. The Ov acted as oxophilic sites, facilitating water adsorption and dissociation, and reducing the barrier for cleaving HO─H bonds from 0.64 to 0.14 eV. Additionally, Ov regulated the electronic structure of CoFeW-LDH to endow optimized hydrogen binding ability on tungsten atoms, thereby accelerating alkaline Volmer and Heyrovsky reaction kinetics. Specifically, the abundance of Ov induced a transition of tungsten from a six-coordinated to highly active four-coordinated structure, which becomes the active site for HER. Consequently, an ultra-low overpotential of 41 mV at 10 mA cm-2, and a low Tafel slope of 35 mV dec-1 are achieved. These findings offer crucial insights for the design of efficient HER electrocatalysts.

Pd Single-Atom Loaded Ce-Zr Solid Solution Catalysts Prepared by Flame Spray Pyrolysis for Efficient CO Catalytic Oxidation.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) exhibit remarkable catalytic activity at each metal site. However, conventionally synthesized single-atom catalysts often possess low metal loading, thereby constraining their overall catalytic performance. Here, a flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) method for the synthesis of a single-atom catalyst with a high loading capacity of up to 1.4 wt.% in practice is reported. CeZrO2 acts as a carrier and provides a large number of anchoring sites, which promotes the high-density generation of Pd, and the strong interaction between the metal and the support avoids atom aggregation. Pd-CeZrO2 series catalysts have excellent CO oxidation performance. When 0.97 wt.% Pd is added, the catalytic activity is the highest, and the temperature can be reduced to 120 °C. This work presented here demonstrates that FSP, as an inherently scalable technique, allows for elevating the single-atom loading to achieve an increase in its catalytic performance. The method presented here more options for the preparation of SACs.

Oxygen Vacancy-Controlled CuOx/N,Se Co-Doped Porous Carbon via Plasma-Treatment for Enhanced Electro-Reduction of Nitrate to Green Ammonia.

The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) is of significance in regards of environmentally friendly issues and green ammonia production. However, relatively low performance with a competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a challenge to overcome for the NO3RR. In this study, oxygen vacancy-controlled copper oxide (CuOx) catalysts through a plasma treatment are successfully prepared and supported on high surface area porous carbon that are co-doped with N, Se species for its enhanced electrochemical properties. The oxygen vacancy-increased CuOx catalyst supported on the N,Se co-doped porous carbon (CuOx-H/NSePC) exhibited the highest NO3RR performance with faradaic efficiency (FE) of 87.2% and yield of 7.9 mg cm-2 h-1 for the ammonia production, representing significant enhancements of FE and ammonia yield as compared to the un-doped or the oxygen vacancy-decreased catalysts. This high performance should be attributed to a significant increase in the catalytic active sites with facilitated energetics from strategies of doping the catalytic materials and weakening the N─O bonding strength for the adsorption of NO3 - ions on the modulated oxygen vacancies. This results show a promise that co-doping of heteroatoms and regulating of oxygen vacancies can be key factors for performance enhancement, suggesting new guidelines for effective catalyst design of NO3RR.

The Effect of Ni Doping on FeOF Cathode Material for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have emerged as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries for large-scale energy storage systems due to the abundance and low price of sodium. Until recently, the low theoretical capacities of intercalation-type cathodes less than 250 mAh g-1 have limited the energy density of SIBs. On the other hand, iron oxyfluoride (FeOF) has a high theoretical capacity of ≈885 mAh g-1 as a conversion-type cathode material for SIBs. However, FeOF suffers from poor cycling stability, rate capability, and low initial Coulombic efficiency caused by its low electrical conductivity and slow ionic diffusion kinetics. To solve these problems, doping aliovalent Ni2+ on FeOF electrodes is attempted to improve the electronic conductivity without using a carbon matrix. The ionic conductivity of FeOF is also enhanced due to the formation of oxygen defects in the FeOF crystal structure. The FeOF-Ni1 electrode shows an excellent cycling performance with a reversible discharge capacity of 450.4 mAh g-1 at 100 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles with a fading rate of 0.20% per cycle. In addition, the FeOF-Ni1//hard carbon full cell exhibited a high energy density of 876.9 Wh kg-1 cathode with a good cycling stability.

Synergistic Effect of Grain Boundaries and Oxygen Vacancies on Enhanced Selectivity for Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction.

Dual-engineering involved of grain boundaries (GBs) and oxygen vacancies (VO) efficiently engineers the material's catalytic performance by simultaneously introducing favorable electronic and chemical properties. Herein, a novel SnO2 nanoplate is reported with simultaneous oxygen vacancies and abundant grain boundaries (V,G-SnOx/C) for promoting the highly selective conversion of CO2 to value-added formic acid. Attributing to the synergistic effect of employed dual-engineering, the V,G-SnOx/C displays highly catalytic selectivity with a maximum Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 87% for HCOOH production at -1.2 V versus RHE and FEs > 95% for all C1 products (CO and HCOOH) within all applied potential range, outperforming current state-of-the-art electrodes and the amorphous SnOx/C. Theoretical calculations combined with advanced characterizations revealed that GB induces the formation of electron-enriched Sn site, which strengthens the adsorption of *HCOO intermediate. While GBs and VO synergistically lower the reaction energy barrier, thus dramatically enhancing the intrinsic activity and selectivity toward HCOOH.

Tailoring Broadband Nonlinear Optical Characteristics and Ultrafast Photocarrier Dynamics of Bi2O2S Nanosheets by Defect Engineering.

Low-dimensional bismuth oxychalcogenides have shown promising potential in optoelectronics due to their high stability, photoresponse, and carrier mobility. However, the relevant studies on deep understanding for Bi2O2S is quite limited. Here, comprehensive experimental and computational investigations are conducted in the regulated band structure, nonlinear optical (NLO) characteristics, and carrier dynamics of Bi2O2S nanosheets via defect engineering, taking O vacancy (OV) and substitutional Se doping as examples. As the OV continuously increased to ≈35%, the optical bandgaps progressively narrow from ≈1.21 to ≈0.81 eV and NLO wavelengths are extended to near-infrared regions with enhanced saturable absorption. Simultaneously, the relaxation processes are effectively accelerated from tens of picoseconds to several picoseconds, as the generated defect energy levels can serve as both additional absorption cross-sections and fast relaxation channels supported by theoretical calculations. Furthermore, substitutional Se doping in Bi2O2S nanosheets also modulate their optical properties with the similar trends. As a proof-of-concept, passively mode-locked pulsed lasers in the ≈1.0 µm based on the defect-rich samples (≈35% OV and ≈50% Se-doping) exhibit excellent performance. This work deepens the insight of defect functions on optical properties of Bi2O2S nanosheets and provides new avenues for designing advanced photonic devices based on low-dimensional bismuth oxychalcogenides.

Electron Accumulation Induced by Electron Injection-Incomplete Discharge on NiFe LDH for Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Optimizing the local electronic structure of electrocatalysts can effectively lower the energy barrier of electrochemical reactions, thus enhancing the electrocatalytic activity. However, the intrinsic contribution of the electronic effect is still experimentally unclear. In this work, the electron injection-incomplete discharge approach to achieve the electron accumulation (EA) degree on the nickel-iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe LDH) is proposed, to reveal the intrinsic contribution of EA toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Such NiFe LDH with EA effect results in only 262 mV overpotential to reach 50 mA cm-2, which is 51 mV-lower compared with pristine NiFe LDH (313 mV), and reduced Tafel slope of 54.8 mV dec-1 than NiFe LDH (107.5 mV dec-1). Spectroscopy characterizations combined with theoretical calculations confirm that the EA near concomitant Vo can induce a narrower energy gap and lower thermodynamic barrier to enhance OER performance. This study clarifies the mechanism of the EA effect on OER activity, providing a direct electronic structure modulation guideline for effective electrocatalyst design.

Enhancing Localized Electron Density over Pd1.4Cu Decorated Oxygen Defective TiO2-x Nanoarray for Electrocatalytic Nitrite Reduction to Ammonia.

Electrocatalytic nitrite (NO2 -) reduction to ammonia (NH3) is a promising method for reducing pollution and aiding industrial production. However, progress is limited by the lack of efficient selective catalysts and ambiguous catalytic mechanisms. This study explores the loading of PdCu alloy onto oxygen defective TiO2-x, resulting in a significant increase in NH3 yield (from 70.6 to 366.4 µmol cm-2 h-1 at -0.6 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode) by modulating localized electron density. In situ and operando studies illustrate that the reduction of NO2 - to NH3 involves gradual deoxygenation and hydrogenation. The process also demonstrated excellent selectivity and stability, with long-term durability in cycling and 50 h stability tests. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations elucidate that the introduction of PdCu alloys further amplified electron density at oxygen vacancies (Ovs). Additionally, the Ti─O bond is strengthened as the d-band center of the Ti 3d rising after PdCu loading, facilitating the adsorption and activation of *NO2. Moreover, the presence of Ovs and PdCu alloy lowers the energy barriers for deoxygenation and hydrogenation, leading to high yield and selectivity of NH3. This insight of controlling localized electron density offers valuable insights for advancing sustainable NH3 synthesis methods.

Amorphous/Crystalline Phases Mixed Nanosheets Array Rich in Oxygen Vacancies Boost Oxygen Evolution Reaction of Spinel Oxides in Alkaline Media.

As promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, spinel-type oxides face the bottleneck of weak adsorption for oxygen-containing intermediates, so it is challenging to make a further breakthrough in remarkably lowering the OER overpotential. In this study, a novel strategy is proposed to substantially enhance the OER activity of spinel oxides based on amorphous/crystalline phases mixed spinel FeNi2O4 nanosheets array, enriched with oxygen vacancies, in situ grown on a nickel foam (NF). This unique architecture is achieved through a one-step millisecond laser direct writing method. The presence of amorphous phases with abundant oxygen vacancies significantly enhances the adsorption of oxygen-containing intermediates and changes the rate-determining step from OH*→O* to O*→OOH*, which greatly reduces the thermodynamic energy barrier. Moreover, the crystalline phase interweaving with amorphous domains serves as a conductive shortcut to facilitate rapid electron transfer from active sites in the amorphous domain to NF, guaranteeing fast OER kinetics. Such an anodic electrode exhibits a nearly ten fold enhancement in OER intrinsic activity compared to the pristine counterpart. Remarkably, it demonstrates record-low overpotentials of 246 and 315 mV at 50 and 500 mA cm-2 in 1 m KOH with superior long-term stability, outperforming other NiFe-based spinel oxides catalysts.

Surface-Integrating Oxygen Vacancy and CuxO Nanodots Enabling Synergistic Electric Field and Dual Catalytic Sites Boosting CO2 Photoreduction.

High carrier separation efficiency and rapid surface catalytic reaction are crucial for enhancing catalytic CO2 photoreduction reaction. Herein, integrated surface decoration strategy with oxygen vacancies (Ov) and anchoring CuxO (1 < x < 2) nanodots below 10 nm is realized on Bi2MoO6 for promoting CO2 photoreduction performance. The charge interaction between Ov and anchored CuxO enables the formation of enhanced internal electric field, which provides a strong driving force for accelerating the separation of photocharge carriers on the surface of Bi2MoO6 (ηsurf ≈71%). They can also cooperatively reduce the surface work function of Bi2MoO6, facilitating the migration of carrier to the surface. Meanwhile, surface-integrated Ov and CuxO nanodots allowing dual catalytic sites strengthens the adsorption and activation CO2 into *CO2 over Bi2MoO6, considerably boosting the progression of CO2 conversion process. In the absence of co-catalyst or sacrificial agent, Bi2MoO6 with Ov and CuxO nanodots achieves a photocatalytic CO generation rate of 12.75 µmol g-1 h-1, a remarkable increase of over ≈15 times that of the original counterpart. This work provides a new idea for governing charge movement behaviors and catalytic reaction thermodynamics on the basis of synergistic improvement of electric field and active sites by coupling of the internal defects and external species.

Plasma-Engineering of Oxygen Vacancies on NiCo2O4 Nanowires with Enhanced Bifunctional Electrocatalytic Performance for Rechargeable Zinc-air Battery.

Designing an efficient, durable, and inexpensive bifunctional electrocatalyst toward oxygen evolution reactions (OER) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) remains a significant challenge for the development of rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs). The generation of oxygen vacancies plays a vital role in modifying the surface properties of transition-metal-oxides (TMOs) and thus optimizing their electrocatalytic performances. Herein, a H2/Ar plasma is employed to generate abundant oxygen vacancies at the surfaces of NiCo2O4 nanowires. Compared with the Ar plasma, the H2/Ar plasma generated more oxygen vacancies at the catalyst surface owing to the synergic effect of the Ar-related ions and H-radicals in the plasma. As a result, the NiCo2O4 catalyst treated for 7.5 min in H2/Ar plasma exhibited the best bifunctional electrocatalytic activities and its gap potential between Ej = 10 for OER and E1/2 for ORR is even smaller than that of the noble-metal-based catalyst. In situ electrochemical experiments are also conducted to reveal the proposed mechanisms for the enhanced electrocatalytic performance. The rechargeable ZABs, when equipped with cathodes utilizing the aforementioned catalyst, achieved an outstanding charge-discharge gap, as well as superior cycling stability, outperforming batteries employing noble-metal catalyst counterparts.