Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2026, Vol. 81: 319-332.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(25)64875-3

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Fe and Co bimetallic single-atoms coordinated by N and Te as bifunctional oxygen reduction/evolution catalysts for high-performance zinc-air battery

Hui-Min Xua,1, Xiao-Qi Gongb,1, Kai-Hang Yuec,1, Chen-Jin Huanga, Hong-Rui Zhua, Lian-Jie Songd, Gao-Ren Lia()   

  1. a College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, Sichuan, China
    b School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, Guangdong, China
    c CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS), Shanghai 200050, China
    d China 19th Metallurgical Group Corporation Limited, Chengdu 610031, Sichuan, China
  • Received:2025-06-25 Accepted:2025-09-11 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2025-12-26
  • Contact: *E-mail: ligaoren@scu.edu.cn (G.-R. Li).
  • About author:1 Contributed equally to this work.
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(52373215);Sichuan Science and Technology Program(2023NSFSC0086);Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(YJ2021156)

Abstract:

Zinc air batteries (ZABs) are a low-cost, high-energy density, and green sustainable energy storage device. At present, the main challenge in achieving large-scale application of ZABs is to develop low-cost and high-performance bifunctional catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Compared with monometallic single-atom catalyst, the bimetallic single-atoms catalyst can effectively improve ORR/OER bifunctional activity, realize rapid charge transfer, and play a significant role in regulating the adsorption of oxygen intermediates. In this study, we design the novel Fe and Co bimetallic single-atoms coordinated by Te and N anchoring on N-doped carbon (NC) (denoted as FeNxTey/CoNxTey@NC) for the first time, serving as a bifunctional catalyst for ZABs. This innovative catalyst exhibits excellent bifunctional ORR/OER catalytic performance under alkaline conditions, achieving a high half-wave potential of 0.912 V for ORR and a low overpotential of 305 mV for OER at 10 mA cm-2. The FeNxTey/CoNxTey@NC-based ZABs realizes a high peak power density of 306.1 mW cm-2 and a large specific energy density of 773.2 mAh g-1. The experimental data show that the N-doped can achieve precise regulation of the structure and high-density distribution of atomic active sites in FeNxTey/CoNxTey@NC (idealized theoretical model is FeCoN6Te). The density functional theory calculations show that when the FeN4/CoN4 models (the synthesized catalyst denoted as FeNx/CoNx@NC) transforms into FeCoN6Te models, Te atoms regulate the local charge densities of Fe and Co on FeCoN6Te models and further promote the charge transfer between Fe and Co on FeCoN6Te models, which optimizes the adsorption energies of ORR/OER intermediates. The findings in this study will pave the way for the development of high-performance bimetallic single-atom catalysts for practical energy conversion applications.

Key words: Bimetallic single-atoms, Te coordination, N-doped Carbon, Oxygen reduction reaction, Oxygen evolution reaction, Zinc-air battery