In situ coupled amorphous cobalt nitride with nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel as a trifunctional electrocatalyst towards Zn-air battery deriven full water splitting

Herein, we report a new type of efficient trifunctional electrocatalyst by in situ coupling amorphous cobalt nitride (CoNx) nanoparticles within three-dimensional (3D) nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel (NGA). The CoNx/NGA nanohybrid with hierarchical porous strucuture guarantees the superior activities toward ORR, OER and HER, due to abundant dual active CoNx. and NxC sites. Impressively, it also exhibits a long lifetime and exceptionally high electrochemical performances as a cathode and an anode in a two-electrode overall water splitting electrolyzer, and also as an air-cathode in a rechargeable Zn-air battery. In addition, the CoNx/NGA-based water splitting electrolyzer and two Zn-air batteries can be integrated together to effectively self-drive electrochemical water splitting device with high gas evolution rates of 186 and 372 mu mol h(-1) for O-2 and H-2, respectively. This work paves a way for designing advanced non-noble multifunctional catalysts, aiming for the real application of energy storage and conversion devices.