PtCo Nanoparticles Confined in N, P, and S Codoped Porous Carbon for Ultralong Solid-State Zn-Air Batteries

The advancement of metal-air batteries critically depends on the rational design of cost-effective, highly active, and durable bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts. Herein, we present a facile strategy to synthesize monodisperse PtCo nanoparticles (NPs) confined within N, P, and S codoped porous carbon (PtCo-NPSC), leveraging multiheteroatom doping and nanoconfinement to precisely modulate the catalyst’s interfacial electronic structure. The nitrogen-doped carbon shell prevents aggregation, while the strong coupling between PtCo NPs and the heteroatom-rich carbon framework optimizes the electronic states of active sites, synergistically enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction/OER activity. When applied as a cathode catalyst, PtCo-NPSC enables rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs) to achieve an outstanding power density of 220 mW cm–2 and a specific capacity of 779.4 mAh g–1Zn. The corresponding solid-state ZAB also demonstrates superior performance with a peak power density of 102 mW cm–2 and a prolonged cycle life of 230 h. This work highlights a generalizable design paradigm-integrating NP confinement with multiheteroatom carbon engineering to achieve high-performance, durable electrocatalysts for next-generation energy storage applications.