Publication date: 15th December 2025
Platinum-group catalysts still dominate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in zinc–air batteries, but their cost, supply risk, and durability motivate alternatives built from abundant elements. Metal-free, pyrolysis-free organic polymers are attractive because their redox chemistry can be designed at the molecular level and they avoid critical raw materials [1]; however, their low electronic conductivity often limits catalyst utilisation in practical electrodes [2].
Here we report an anthraquinone-based conjugated microporous polymer (AQ–CMP) and show that deliberate hybridisation with conductive nanocarbons overcomes this bottleneck [3]. By synthesising the polymer in the presence of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), we obtain a hybrid (AQ–CMP@SR) that preserves permanent microporosity and redox-active anthraquinone motifs while forming a continuous conductive network through the catalyst layer. Structural and morphological analyses indicate intimate polymer–carbon integration without substantial loss of porosity.
In alkaline electrolyte, AQ–CMP@SR shows a more positive ORR onset potential (~0.82 V vs RHE), an improved half-wave potential (~0.72 V vs RHE), and a higher diffusion-limited current density (−3.35 mA cm⁻²). The hybrid shifts selectivity towards the four-electron ORR pathway with reduced peroxide formation, consistent with higher electronic conductivity and lower charge-transfer resistance. Control experiments distinguish true hybridisation from simple physical mixing: only the in-situ-formed hybrid delivers the full performance improvement.
When implemented as an air cathode in zinc–air batteries, the hybrid electrode delivers higher discharge voltages over a broad range of current demands and supports stable rechargeable operation when combined with an oxygen-evolution co-catalyst. Overall, nanocarbon-hybridised conjugated microporous polymers emerge as a promising class of sustainable, metal-free ORR electrocatalysts and provide a transferable strategy for translating molecularly defined organic catalysts into durable zinc–air battery electrodes.
F.B. is supported by the Italian National PhD in PHOTOVOLTAICS – work package ‘’Solar Intermittency and Storage’’. F.B. and L.D.M. gratefully acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC), ERC Consolidator Grant ‘‘HYNANOSTORE” (project number 101045746) and from the European Union –NextGenerationEU, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Project code PE0000021, “Network 4 Energy Sustainable Transition –NEST” – CUP B53C22004060006. N.P. and R.M. thank the Spanish Government; MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER“A way of making Europe” (PID2024-160166OB-I00) for the funding. N.P. acknowledges the support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Ramon y Cajal Program RYC2023-043057-I, funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033and by the ESF.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.