Metal–air batteries (MABs) and regenerative fuel cells (RFCs) technologies rely on a combination of efficient electrochemical oxygen evolution and oxygen reduction reactions (OER and ORR, respectively). However, such bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts also rely on the use of readily accessible carbon supports. Herein, we show that shungite, a natural mineral, can serve as an efficient support for development of bifunctional electrocatalysts. Namely, we purify the mineral to remove additional metals and screen various combinations of cobalt, iron and nitrogen sources to identify electrochemically most suitable system to serve as an active bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst material.

金属空气电池（MAB）和可再生燃料电池（RFC）技术依赖于有效的电化学氧气释放和氧气还原反应（分别为OER和ORR）的组合。但是，这种双功能氧电催化剂也依赖于容易获得的碳载体的使用。在本文中，我们表明，天然矿物-钨矿可以为开发双功能电催化剂提供有效的支持。即，我们纯化矿物以去除其他金属，并筛选钴，铁和氮源的各种组合，以鉴定电化学上最适合用作活性双功能氧电催化剂材料的系统。