Rapid heating synthesis of ultrafine PtCo nanoparticles anchored on carbon nanofibers as high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for zinc-air batteries.

[Display omitted] • Ultrafine PtCo nanoparticles anchored on CNFs is fabricated by rapid heating method. • The obtained PtCo/CNFs-HHR displays outstanding ORR/OER catalytic activity. • PtCo/CNFs-HHR based ZAB exhibits a high peak power density and excellent durability. Herein, rapid heating strategy was introduced to synthesize ultrafine PtCo nanoparticles attached to carbon nanofibers (CNFs) by a high heating rate (HHR) up to about 50 °C s−1. This novel tactic is beneficial to the formation and the homogeneous distribution of ultrathin PtCo nanoparticles on CNFs. The acquired PtCo/CNFs-HHR exhibits a half-wave potential of 0.88 V for ORR, along with a low potential difference ΔE of 0.79 V. When used as the cathode catalyst of ZABs, PtCo/CNFs-HHR displays a high open circuit voltage of 1.454 V, large peak power density of 138.6 mW cm−2, and excellent charge–discharge cycle stability over 300 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]