Yttrium fluoride doped nitrogen-contained carbon as an efficient cathode catalyst in zinc-air battery

Recently, advanced nitrogen-containing carbon materials create a huge opportunity for developing efficient catalysts, and show great potential in zinc-air batteries (ZABs). In this study, YF3 doped nitrogen-containing carbon (YF3@NC) electrocatalyst is prepared using m-phenylenediamine as nitrogen and carbon sources. Yttrium chloride, ammonium fluoride and l-arginine are used as Y source, F source and assistant, respectively. Spherical YF3 precursor is obtained through a facile arginine-assisted hydrothermal method, which is then coated with nitrogen-containing carbon and pyrolyzed at high temperature to fabricate YF3@NC. It exhibits a positive onset potential (0.943 V), half-wave potential (0.836 V), high current density and good cycling stability (10 h degradation: 13%). When YF3@NC is applied as air cathode electrode in ZABs, the obtained battery has a high open circuit potential (1.478 V) and peak power density (75 mW cm−2). This approach makes YF3@NC to be a promising candidate as cathode catalyst in ZABs in the future.