Batteries are undergoing rapid advancements. For example, modern zinc-air batteries have the remarkable ability to use oxygen as energy - but that oxygen isn't stored in the battery itself. Zinc-Air batteries take in surrounding oxygen to undergo a reaction to discharge energy called the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). While this convenient strategy is promising, the slow speed of the ORR limits the practicality of these batteries.
However, researchers at Tohoku University found a method to enhance ORR activity using a catalyst with a precise configuration of iron (Fe). Their remarkable heterointerface - which is a combination of Fe2O3 and Sm2O3 - accelerates ORR kinetics by inducing charge redistribution, orbital hybridization, and super-exchange-mediated spin modulation. In other words, they have fine-tuned an efficient and sustainably sourced catalyst to bring out the true potential of zinc-air batteries.
Fe2O3 was chosen because it is abundant, inexpensive, and structurally stable under alkaline conditions. The issue was getting past the bottleneck of Fe sites binding OH intermediates too strongly, which slows OH desorption and limits overall ORR kinetics. To stop Fe2O3 from holding onto OH so tightly, they created a strongly coupled Fe2O3/Sm2O3 heterointerface. As a result, excessive Fe-OH bonding was weakened, which freed up OH and helped the reaction proceed more smoothly. In addition, further testing supports its potential to power real electronic devices, as it was able to power a small LED lamp and charge a smartphone.
"The catalyst achieves high ORR activity, improved reaction kinetics, excellent durability, and superior performance in both liquid and flexible all-solid-state zinc-air batteries," explains Hao Li, distinguished professor at the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR). "For the general public, this means that we may be closer to affordable and sustainable clean-energy technologies."
By developing a noble-metal-free catalyst with high activity and stability, this study provides a possible pathway toward lower-cost, longer-lasting, and more scalable energy-conversion and storage devices. In the long term, such advances could support practical applications including portable electronics, wearable devices, electric transportation, and renewable-energy storage, thereby helping reduce dependence on costly materials and promoting cleaner energy use.
For the next steps, the researchers will focus on extending both the fundamental mechanism and the practical application of this interfacial spin-regulation strategy, to see where else this strategy could be helpfully deployed.
The findings were published in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. on May 25, 2026.
- Publication Details:
Title: Matching the Coupling of Valence Electrons in the Oxide Interface to Perturb the Magnetic Order Enhancing Oxygen Reduction in Zinc-Air Batteries
Authors: Jing Li, Ningkang Peng, Jianhua Ma, Tingyu Lu, Haibin Zhu, Guangyao Zhou, Yizhou Zhang, Yanhui Gu, Yawen Tang, and Hao Li
Journal: Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
