Cobalt atom-cluster interactions synergistically enhance the activity of oxygen reduction reaction in seawater

Seawater electrocatalysis is highly desired for a variety of energy storage and conversion systems, such as water splitting and metal fuel cells that directly using seawater as electrolyte. However, the adsorption of chloride ions (Cl−) on active sites of cathodes would worsen the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and stability, thus lowering the battery performance. In this work, we firstly designed an electrocatalyst model, in which the Co atomic clusters were closely surrounded by satellite Co single atoms on N-doped carbon substrates, designated as Co-ACSAs. The theoretical calculation results suggested that the Co clusters possess stronger Cl− binding energy and acted as pre-adsorption group for Cl−, thus fully exposed Co single atoms as ORR active sites with stronger O2 adsorption energy to promote the oxygen reduction reaction process. Then, we developed an ultrafast high temperature shock strategy to synthesize the Co-ACSAs by controlling the N concentration in carbon substrates. Benefiting from the moderate interacting distance between Co clusters and satellite Co single atoms in Co-ACSAs, the electronic structure of Co clusters and Co single atoms was optimized through the modulation of the interconnected hexatomic ring. As a result, Co-ACSAs exhibit superior ORR activity and durability with on-set and half-wave potentials of 0.885 V and 0.782 V, respectively, and continuously catalyzing for 485 h in seawater electrolyte. The Co-ACSAs-based seawater battery exhibits a discharge voltage of 1.41 V at 5 mA cm−2 and realized stable energy supply for more than 390 h.