The Kirkendall Effect for Engineering Oxygen Vacancy of Hollow Co₃O₄ Nanoparticles toward High-Performance Portable Zinc–Air Batteries

Structure and defect control are widely accepted effective strategies to manipulate the activity and stability of catalysts. On a freestanding hierarchically porous carbon microstructure, the tuning of oxygen vacancy in the embedded hollow cobaltosic oxide (Co₃O₄) nanoparticles is demonstrated through the regulation of nanoscale Kirkendall effect. Starting with the embedded cobalt nanoparticles, the concentration of oxygen-vacancy defect can vary with the degree of Kirkendall oxidation, thus regulating the number of active sites and the catalytic performances. The optimized freestanding catalyst shows among the smallest reversible oxygen overpotential of 0.74 V for catalyzing oxygen reduction/evolution reactions in 0.1 m KOH. Moreover, the catalyst shows promise for substitution of noble metals to boost cathodic oxygen reactions in portable zinc–air batteries. This work provides a strategy to explore catalysts with controllable vacancy defects and desired nano-/microstructures.