Porous carbon-based electrocatalysts for cathodes in zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are limited by their low catalytic activity and poor electronic conductivity, making it difficult for them to be quickly commercialized. To solve these problems of ZABs, copper nanodot-embedded N, F co-doped porous carbon nanofibers (CuNDs@NFPCNFs) are prepared to enhance the electronic conductivity and catalytic activity in this study. The CuNDs@NFPCNFs exhibit excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance based on experimental and density functional theory (DFT) simulation results. The copper nanodots (CuNDs) and N, F co-doped carbon nanofibers (NFPCNFs) synergistically enhance the electrocatalytic activity. The CuNDs in the NFPCNFs also enhance the electronic conductivity to facilitate electron transfer during the ORR. The open porous structure of the NFPCNFs promotes the fast diffusion of dissolved oxygen and the formation of abundant gas-liquid-solid interfaces, leading to enhanced ORR activity. Finally, the CuNDs@NFPCNFs show excellent ORR performance, maintaining 92.5% of the catalytic activity after a long-term ORR test of 20000 s. The CuNDs@NFPCNFs also demonstrate super stable charge-discharge cycling for over 400 h, a high specific capacity of 771.3 mAh g⁻¹ and an excellent power density of 204.9 mW cm⁻² as a cathode electrode in ZABs. This work is expected to provide reference and guidance for research on the mechanism of action of metal nanodot-enhanced carbon materials for ORR electrocatalyst design.

用于锌空气电池 (ZAB) 阴极的多孔碳基电催化剂受到催化活性低和电子导电性差的限制，使其难以快速商业化。为了解决 ZABs 的这些问题，本研究制备了嵌入铜纳米点的 N、F 共掺杂多孔碳纳米纤维 (CuNDs@NFPCNFs)，以提高电子导电性和催化活性。基于实验和密度泛函理论 (DFT) 模拟结果，CuNDs@NFPCNFs 表现出优异的氧还原反应 (ORR) 性能。铜纳米点 (CuNDs) 和 N、F 共掺杂碳纳米纤维 (NFPCNFs) 协同增强了电催化活性。NFPCNF 中的 CuND 还增强了电子电导率，以促进 ORR 期间的电子转移。NFPCNFs 的开孔结构促进溶解氧的快速扩散和丰富的气-液-固界面的形成，从而提高 ORR 活性。最后，CuNDs@NFPCNFs 表现出优异的 ORR 性能，在 20000 s 的长期 ORR 测试后保持了 92.5% 的催化活性。CuNDs@NFPCNFs 还展示了超稳定的充放电循环超过 400 小时，比容量高达 771.3 mAh g^{-1和 204.9 mW cm -2}的出色功率密度作为 ZAB 中的阴极电极。该工作有望为研究金属纳米点增强碳材料的作用机理用于ORR电催化剂设计提供参考和指导。