title: Phase and composition controllable synthesis of cobalt manganese spinel nanoparticles towards efficient oxygen electrocatalysis.
abstract: Spinel-type oxides are technologically important in many fields, including electronics, magnetism, catalysis and electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Typically, these materials are prepared by conventional ceramic routes that are energy consuming and offer limited control over shape and size. Moreover, for mixed-metal oxide spinels (for example, Co(x)Mn(3-x)O4), the crystallographic phase sensitively correlates with the metal ratio, posing great challenges to synthesize active product with simultaneously tuned phase and composition. Here we report a general synthesis of ultrasmall cobalt manganese spinels with tailored structural symmetry and composition through facile solution-based oxidation-precipitation and insertion-crystallization process at modest condition. As an example application, the nanocrystalline spinels catalyse the oxygen reduction/evolution reactions, showing phase and composition co-dependent performance. Furthermore, the mild synthetic strategy allows the formation of homogeneous and strongly coupled spinel/carbon nanocomposites, which exhibit comparable activity but superior durability to Pt/C and serve as efficient catalysts to build rechargeable Zn-air and Li-air batteries.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Xiaopeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Fangyi
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9400-1500
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Yuxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Chengcheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) and State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen