Investigation of alternative materials as bifunctional catalysts for electrochemical applications

Abstract

A lab-scale custom made Zinc-Air battery cell was manufactured and tested with a variety of cathode catalysts. MnO2 has been examined both as an Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) catalyst, with more promising results as an ORR catalyst. MnO2 as well as a combination of MnO2 and MWCNTs (MOCN-10) has been examined in this work. In addition, two different Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), specifically HKUST-1 and MOF-74, based on Cu and Ni, respectively, were investigated as an alternative and novel cathode catalyst directly on the battery cell. A power output of 20 mW · cm–2 was achieved by using MOCN-10, along with stability in prolonged discharge cycling at 5 mA · cm–2. Furthermore, MOF-loaded battery demonstrated astonishing performance in pulse cycling for more than 120 hours. Moreover, no dendrite formation was observed during long term pulse cycling.