An effective method for enhancing oxygen evolution kinetics of LaMO3 (M = Ni, Co, Mn) perovskite catalysts and its application to a rechargeable zinc–air battery

Of the various non-precious catalysts that have been explored thus far, perovskite oxides have attracted much attention due to their intrinsic catalytic activity and structural flexibility. Here we report a new method for enhancing oxygen evolution reation (OER) activity of LaNiO3 perovskite by a thin FeOOH coating. The resulting LaNiO3@FeOOH demonstrates remarkably enhanced OER activity, much better than those of the pristine LaNiO3 or the benchmark RuO2. The excellent OER activity is attributed mainly to the optimized adsorption energy for oxygenated species and fast charge transfer kinetics. Similar enhancement effect of the FeOOH layer is also observed for other perovskite oxides, suggesting that the developed approach could be an effective strategy towards enhancing OER activity of many perovskite catalysts. Moreover, when the LaNiO3@FeOOH is used as the OER catalyst in a rechargeable Zn–air battery, the overpotential of the cell is reduced while maintaining long cycling life, demonstrating the promising prospect for practical applications.