Zinc–air battery offers 310 mW power, stable operation for 1,100 hours

Researchers from Donghua University and collaborators in China have developed advanced zinc–air batteries (ZABs) featuring a novel p–n heterojunction catalyst that integrates graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets with a carbon nanofiber network containing dual cobalt active sites. This catalyst significantly enhances oxygen reduction and evolution reactions under light irradiation, resulting in a peak power density of 310 mW/cm² and stable charge–discharge cycling for over 1,100 hours. The batteries also demonstrate strong mechanical flexibility, maintaining performance under repeated bending, with flexible prototypes achieving a peak power density of 96 mW/cm². The key innovation lies in combining photoactivity and electrocatalysis within a single air-electrode architecture, where photogenerated electrons and holes are spatially separated to suppress charge recombination and lower reaction energy barriers. This leads to a notably low oxygen reaction overpotential gap of 0.684 V under illumination, outperforming many existing bifunctional catalysts. The approach leverages light