Mesoporous Cobalt Molybdenum Nitride: A Highly Active Bifunctional Electrocatalyst and Its Application in Lithium-O2 Batteries

Bifunctional electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) play a critical role in fuel cells and metal-air batteries. In this article, mesoporous cobalt molybdenum nitride (Co3Mo3N) is prepared using a coprecipitation method followed by ammonia annealing treatment. Much more active sites generated by well designed mesoporous nanostructure and intrinsically electronic configuration lead to excellent electrocatalytic performance for ORR/OER in Li-O-2 cells, delivering considerable specific capacity and alleviating polarization. It is manifested that high charge-discharge efficiency and good cycle stability were obtained in the LiTFSI/TEGDME electrolyte owing to a stable interface between optimized electrolyte and electrode material.