Developing a highly efficient and low-cost catalyst on a large scale is still a big challenge for fuel cells and metal–air batteries. Decorating carbon supports with some active sites (e.g., nitrogen doping, metal–nitrogen doping) seems to be a promising strategy. In this work, we first reported a Cu-centered metal organic framework (Cu–MOF) as a self-sacrificing precursor to modify the Ketjenblack (KB) carbon, where crystalline Cu/Cu₂O nanoparticles and noncrystalline CuN_xC_y species were derived after calcination. The catalytic activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of this modified KB carbon was significantly boosted probably because of the synergistic effect between crystalline Cu/Cu₂O nanoparticles and noncrystalline CuN_xC_y species. This hybrid catalyst exhibited a comparable half-wave potential (0.82 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE) and superior limiting-current density and durability to the commercial 20 wt % Pt/C. The excellent activity was also further confirmed by the application in home-made Al–air batteries, yielding a highly stable voltage of 1.53 V at a current density of 40 mA cm^–2.

中文翻译：

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Cu–MOF衍生的Cu / Cu ₂ O纳米粒子和CuN _x C _y物种增强铝空气电池中科琴黑炭的氧还原活性

对于燃料电池和金属空气电池而言，大规模开发高效，低成本的催化剂仍然是一个巨大的挑战。用一些活性位点（例如，氮掺杂，金属-氮掺杂）装饰碳载体似乎是一种有前途的策略。在这项工作中，我们首先报道了以铜为中心的金属有机骨架（Cu-MOF）作为自我牺牲的前体，以改性科琴黑（KB）碳，其中结晶的Cu / Cu ₂ O纳米颗粒和非晶的CuN _x C _y物种是煅烧后衍生。改性的KB碳对氧还原反应（ORR）的催化活性显着提高，可能是由于结晶Cu / Cu ₂之间的协同作用O纳米颗粒和非晶态CuN _x C _y物种。这种杂化催化剂表现出可比的半波电势（相对于可逆氢电极，RHE为0.82 V）和优于市售20 wt％Pt / C的极限电流密度和耐久性。这种优异的活性还通过在自制铝制空气电池中的应用得到了进一步证实，在40 mA cm ^–2的电流密度下可产生1.53 V的高度稳定电压。