Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Oxide Nanoribbon Supported Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles as High-Performance Bifunctional Catalysts for Zinc–Air Battery

Developing high-performance, high-stability, and low-cost nonprecious metal catalysts to enhance the performance of zinc–air batteries (ZABs) holds significant importance. A bifunctional catalyst consisting of cobalt oxide (CoO) nanocrystals on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide nanoribbons (N-rGONR) as a novel substrate is successfully synthesized in this work. This synthesized bifunctional catalyst exhibits mesoporous structure, and remarkable synergistic effects between CoO nanocrystals and N-rGONR, demonstrating excellent activity and durability in both oxygen reduction reactions and oxygen evolution reactions. Notably, the resulting aqueous electrolyte ZABs show a high discharge peak power density of 196 mW cm⁻², a high specific capacity of 615.9 mAh g⁻¹, and long-time stability for 648 h. Furthermore, the assembly of 1D and 2D flexible solid-state ZABs fabricated using this bifunctional catalyst exhibits stable electrochemical performance, even under severe deformation. These results underscore the considerable promise of implementing the CoO@N-rGONR catalyst structure in next-generation advanced energy storage and conversion devices.