Iron phthalocyanine with coordination induced electronic localization to boost oxygen reduction reaction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 4173 - 8
• Main Authors: Chen, Kejun, Liu, Kang, An, Pengda, Li, Huangjingwei, Lin, Yiyang, Hu, Junhua, Jia, Chuankun, Fu, Junwei, Li, Hongmei, Liu, Hui, Lin, Zhang, Li, Wenzhang, Li, Jiahang, Lu, Ying-Rui, Chan, Ting-Shan, Zhang, Ning, Liu, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 20.08.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/146; 147/135; 147/143; 639/301/299/886; 639/4077/909; 639/638/77/886; Activation; Active sites; Adsorption; Carbon; Catalysts; Chemical reduction; Coordination; Electron distribution; Humanities and Social Sciences; Iron; Localization; Metal phthalocyanines; multidisciplinary; Oxygen; Oxygen reduction reactions; Reaction kinetics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Strategy; Synchrotron radiation; X ray absorption
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18062-y

Iron phthalocyanine (FePc) is a promising non-precious catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Unfortunately, FePc with plane-symmetric FeN 4 site usually exhibits an unsatisfactory ORR activity due to its poor O 2 adsorption and activation. Here, we report an axial Fe–O coordination induced electronic localization strategy to improve its O 2 adsorption, activation and thus the ORR performance. Theoretical calculations indicate that the Fe–O coordination evokes the electronic localization among the axial direction of O–FeN 4 sites to enhance O 2 adsorption and activation. To realize this speculation, FePc is coordinated with an oxidized carbon. Synchrotron X-ray absorption and Mössbauer spectra validate Fe–O coordination between FePc and carbon. The obtained catalyst exhibits fast kinetics for O 2 adsorption and activation with an ultralow Tafel slope of 27.5 mV dec −1 and a remarkable half-wave potential of 0.90 V. This work offers a new strategy to regulate catalytic sites for better performance. Iron phthalocyanine with a 2D structure and symmetric electron distribution around Fe-N 4 active sites is not optimal for O 2 adsorption and activation. Here, the authors report an axial Fe–O coordination induced electronic localization strategy to enhance oxygen reduction reaction performance.