Designing Breathing Air-electrode and Enhancing the Oxygen Electrocatalysis by Thermoelectric Effect for Efficient Zn-air Batteries

The sluggish kinetics and mutual interference of oxygen evolution and reduction reactions in the air electrode resulted in large charge/discharge overpotential and low energy efficiency of Zn-air batteries. In this work, we designed a breathing air-electrode configuration in the battery using P-type Ca3Co4O9 and N-type CaMnO3 as charge and discharge thermoelectrocatalysts, respectively. The Seebeck voltages generated from thermoelectric effect of Ca3Co4O9 and CaMnO3 synergistically compensated the charge and discharge overpotentials. The carrier migration and accumulation on the cold surface of Ca3Co4O9 and CaMnO3 optimized the electronic structure of metallic sites and thus enhanced their intrinsic catalytic activity. The oxygen evolution and reduction overpotentials were enhanced by 101 and 90 mV, respectively, at temperature gradient of 200 degrees C. The breathing Zn-air battery displayed a remarkable energy efficiency of 68.1 %. This work provides an efficient avenue towards utilizing waste heat for improving the energy efficiency of Zn-air battery.

Automated summary

A breathing air-electrode configuration was designed using P-type Ca3Co4O9 and N-type CaMnO3 as charge and discharge thermoelectrocatalysts to compensate the charge and discharge overpotentials. The optimized electronic structure of metallic sites enhanced their intrinsic catalytic activity. The breathing Zn-air battery displayed a remarkable energy efficiency of 68.1% at a temperature gradient of 200 degrees C.