Fe-Alloyed MoNi Nanohybrids as Oxygen Evolution Reaction/Oxygen Reduction Reaction Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries

Active bifunctional electrocatalysts for both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are badly required for high-efficiency zinc–air batteries (ZABs). Herein, a Fe-alloyed MoNi nanohybrid (MoNiFe) as bifunctional catalyst is reported. The alloyed MoNiFe architecture with the decreased size compared with MoNi is obtained by a hydrothermal reduction method, which enhances the exposed active sites and promotes the charge transfer. Accordingly, MoNiFe exhibits good bifunctionality, with a positive half-wave potential (0.896 V) near Pt/C (0.812 V) in ORR reaction and a low overpotential (0.295 V) similar to IrO 2 (0.29 V) in OER process. The as-derived rechargeable ZAB cells based on the bifunctional MoNiFe catalyst show the peak power density of 58 mW cm −2 with a high open-circuit voltage of 1.319 V. Thus, this work paves a new alloying avenue for synthesizing effective bifunctional electocatalysts for ZABs.