Enhancing the Electronic Structure of Macroporous LaCoO3 through Ce and Ni Doping for High-Performance Bifunctional Electrocatalysts in Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries

The growing demand for efficient energy storage systems to support the global transition to renewable energy has intensified interest in zinc–air batteries (ZABs), which are renowned for their high theoretical energy density. However, the limited performance of oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions remains a significant challenge. In this study, we present a bifunctional catalyst, La_0.90Ce_0.10Co_0.67Ni_0.33O₃ (LCCNO), designed with a three-dimensional ordered macroporous (3DOM) structure. The introduction of both Ce and Ni into LaCoO₃ shifts the O 2p and M 3d-band centers closer to the Fermi level, thereby improving the electrical conductivity and optimizing metal–oxygen hybridization, which significantly boosts the OER and ORR activity. The 3DOM LCCNO catalyst demonstrates an OER overpotential of 405 mV at 10 mA cm^–2, an ORR half-wave potential of 0.61 V vs RHE, and a ΔE_OER–ORR of 1.02 V, a significant improvement over pristine LaCoO₃. In ZABs, 3DOM LCCNO achieves a 42% higher power density and 68% enhanced stability relative to LaCoO₃, underscoring its potential as a high-performance bifunctional catalyst for advanced energy storage applications.