电纺纤维在锌-空气电池中的应用研究进展

Recent Progress on Electrospun Nanofibers for Zinc-Air Batteries

日益严重的环境污染与能源危机成为人类社会可持续发展进程中的最大阻碍。锌-空气电池作为一类很有发展潜力的电化学储能装置,因其高能量密度和环境友好等特点在能源领域引发了广泛关注,然而空气电极中的氧还原反应和析氧反应动力学缓慢,严重限制了它的商业化应用,因此当前迫切需要开发高效廉价的非贵金属双功能催化剂。静电纺丝制备的一维纳米纤维具有高孔隙率和大比表面积等优点,缩短了离子扩散距离并提供了更多的反应活性位点,有效改善了活性物质的嵌入/脱出反应动力学,在储能器件领域尤其是锌-空气电池中有广阔的应用前景。首先简要介绍了静电纺丝技术,然后探讨了电纺纤维及其自支撑结构的氧还原/析氧反应的催化反应活性,并通过经典的文献案例讨论了电纺纤维在液态和柔性固态锌-空气电池中的应用研究最新进展,最后,对基于电纺纤维催化剂的锌-空气电池应用面临的挑战和未来的发展方向进行了展望。

Increasingly serious environmental pollution and exhausting energy crisis become the biggest obstacle in the process of sustainable development of human society.As a potential electrochemical energy storage device,zinc-air batteries(ZABs)received considerable interest in the field of energy storage because of their high energy density and environmental friendliness.However,the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions limit the commercial development of ZABs,so there is an urgent need to develop efficient and low-cost non-noble metal bifunctional catalysts.Electrospun one-dimensional(1D)nanofibers with unique properties such as high porosity and large specific surface area have a profound impact on providing more active sites,shortening the diffusion pathways for ions/electrons,and improving the kinetics vis-à-vis intercalation/de-intercalation of the active substrate,which endow them with promising application in the field of energy storage devices,especially ZABs.This review first introduces the electrospinning technique and the oxygen reduction/evolution reaction activity of electrospun nanofibers with a self-supported structure,as well as the application of electrospun nanofibers in the liquid and flexible solid-state ZABs,which would demonstrate the superiority of electrospinning technique towards ZABs.Finally,the remaining challenges and research directions of ZABs based on electrospun nanofibers electrocatalysts are shortly discussed.