Zinc-Mediated Template Synthesis of Fe-N-C Electrocatalysts with Densely Accessible Fe-Nx Active Sites for Efficient Oxygen Reduction

Chen G, Liu P, Liao Z, Sun F, He Y, Zhong H, Zhang T, Zschech E, Chen M, Wu G, Zhang J, Feng X (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Advanced Materials Wiley

Book Volume: 32

Article Number: 1907399

Journal Issue: 8

DOI: 10.1002/adma.201907399

Abstract

Owing to their earth abundance, high atom utilization, and excellent activity, single iron atoms dispersed on nitrogen-doped carbons (Fe-N-C) have emerged as appealing alternatives to noble-metal platinum (Pt) for catalyzing the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the ORR activity of current Fe-N-C is seriously limited by the low density and inferior exposure of active Fe-Nx species. Here, a novel zinc-mediated template synthesis strategy is demonstrated for constructing densely exposed Fe-Nx moieties on hierarchically porous carbon (SA-Fe-NHPC). During the thermal treatment of 2,6-diaminopyridine/ZnFe/SiO2 complex, the zinc prevents the formation of iron carbide nanoparticles and the SiO2 template promotes the generation of hierarchically pores for substantially improving the accessibility of Fe-Nx moieties after subsequent leaching. As a result, the SA-Fe-NHPC electrocatalysts exhibit an unprecedentedly high ORR activity with a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.93 V in a 0.1 m KOH aqueous solution, which outperforms those for Pt/C catalyst and state-of-the-art noble metal-free electrocatalysts. As the air electrode in zinc–air batteries, the SA-Fe-NHPC demonstrates a large peak power density of 266.4 mW cm−2 and superior long-term stability. Therefore, the developed zinc-mediated template synthesis strategy for boosting the density and accessibility of Fe-Nx species paves a new avenue toward high-performance ORR electrocatalysts.

Involved external institutions

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) / 中国科学院 CN China (CN) University at Buffalo. State University of New York US United States (USA) (US) Technische Universität Dresden DE Germany (DE) Shanghai Jiao Tong University / 上海交通大学 CN China (CN) Fraunhofer-Institut für Keramische Technologien und Systeme (IKTS) DE Germany (DE) Johns Hopkins University (JHU) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Chen, G., Liu, P., Liao, Z., Sun, F., He, Y., Zhong, H.,... Feng, X. (2020). Zinc-Mediated Template Synthesis of Fe-N-C Electrocatalysts with Densely Accessible Fe-Nx Active Sites for Efficient Oxygen Reduction. Advanced Materials, 32(8). https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201907399

MLA:

Chen, Guangbo, et al. "Zinc-Mediated Template Synthesis of Fe-N-C Electrocatalysts with Densely Accessible Fe-Nx Active Sites for Efficient Oxygen Reduction." Advanced Materials 32.8 (2020).

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