Surface-engineered cobalt nitride composite as efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst

Efficient and low-cost bifunctional catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are essential for the practical application of rechargeable metal-air batteries. In this work, we developed an efficient cobalt nitride hybrid bifunctional electrocatalyst, which consists of sulfur-doped and mildly oxidized Co5.47N nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide sheet (O-S-Co5.47N@N-RGO). The composite exhibits good ORR-OER catalytic activity and excellent stability as well. It delivers an ORR half-wave potential of 0.82 V and an over-potential of 380 mV for OER at 10 mA cm−2 in 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the ORR activity of the composite might have originated from the Co-N4 site in the RGO sheet, whereas the surface Co sites on O-S-Co5.47N crystal are responsible for its OER activity. The facile preparation method and insight into the ORR-OER active sites reported in this study advances the development of high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst.