Development of non-precious metal-based catalysts for substituting precious catalysts as electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial for energy devices, such as metal-air batteries and fuel cells. Herein, Co nanoparticles embedded in sea-urchin like N-doped carbon nanotubes (CoZn-NCNTs) composite is constructed by a facile zinc assisted epitaxial growth pyrolytic strategy of bimetallic zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIFs)-derived engineering. It does not require the introduction of additional carbon source and reducing ambient. During the pyrolytic process, the formation and decomposition of Co₃ZnC accompanied with the volatilization of zinc play important role for the in-situ growth of CNTs. The synergizing of N-doped CNTs and embedded Co nanoparticles structures endows excellent ORR activity of a half-wave potential of 0.82 V, together with superior stability (only 11 mV negative shift for 5000 cycles). It is much higher than the benchmark catalysts respectively derived from zinc- and cobalt-based MOF precursors. A Zn-air battery assembled with CoZn-NCNTs as ORR catalyst delivers a high-power density of 214 mW cm⁻², excellent rate capability and outstanding long-term stability with a voltage retention of 99.4%, surpassing state-of-the-art Pt/C catalyst.

开发非贵金属基催化剂以将贵催化剂替代为电催化氧还原反应（ORR）对于能源设备（例如金属空气电池和燃料电池）至关重要。本文中，通过源自双金属沸石咪唑骨架（ZIFs）的简便锌辅助外延生长热解策略，构建了嵌入海胆中的Co纳米颗粒，如N掺杂碳纳米管（CoZn-NCNTs）复合材料。它不需要引入额外的碳源并减少环境。在热解过程中，Co ₃的形成与分解ZnC伴随着锌的挥发对CNTs的原位生长起着重要作用。N掺杂的CNT和嵌入的Co纳米颗粒结构的协同作用赋予了0.82 V的半波电势出色的ORR活性，以及​​出色的稳定性（5000次循环仅11 mV负移）。它比分别衍生自基于锌和钴的MOF前体的基准催化剂高得多。以CoZn-NCNTs作为ORR催化剂组装的Zn-空气电池可提供214 mW cm ^-2的高功率密度，出色的倍率能力和出色的长期稳定性，电压保持率为99.4％，超过了目前的水平。现有的Pt / C催化剂。