Iron-nitrogen doped carbon with exclusive presence of FexN active sites as an efficient ORR electrocatalyst for Zn-air battery

• Published in: Applied catalysis. B, Environmental Vol. 268; p. 118405
• Main Authors: Hu, Xiao, Min, Yuan, Ma, Lin-Lin, Lu, Jia-Yuan, Li, Hong-Chao, Liu, Wu-Jun, Chen, Jie-Jie, Yu, Han-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 05.07.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Batteries; Carbon; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Density functional theory; Electrocatalysts; FexN nanocrystals; Iron; Metal air batteries; Metal-organic framework (MOF); Metal-organic frameworks; Modules; N-doped carbon; Nitrogen; Oxygen reduction reaction; Platinum; Zinc-oxygen batteries; Zn-air batteries; FexN nanocrystals; N-doped carbon; Metal-organic framework (MOF); Oxygen reduction reaction; Zn-air batteries
• ISSN: 0926-3373; 1873-3883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2019.118405

[Display omitted] •A new FexN (x = 2, 3, or 4) has high catalytic activity towards ORR.•The FexN/NC shows an excellent methanol/CO tolerance.•The FexN/NC is promising candidate to replace the Pt based cathodic catalyst in Zn-air batteries. In this work, we have found that a new Fe-N module, FexN (x = 2, 3, or 4), in which the N atoms insert the lattice of Fe matrix, also has high catalytic activity towards ORR. We synthesized the FexN module embedded N-doped carbon material (FexN/NC) via a facile metal-organic framework (MOF)-templated approach. The as-synthesized FexN/NC shows a superb catalytic ORR activity as well as high methanol tolerance. The highly efficient catalytic active sites (FexN module and well-doped N species) were mainly responsible for the superb ORR activity. The synergistic mechanisms of the N-doped carbon support and FexN moieties for ORR at molecular level were elucidated by density functional theory calculations. The excellent catalytic ORR performance make the FexN/NC catalyst be a promising candidate to replace the expensive Pt based cathodic catalyst in Zn-air batteries.