In situ Fe₂N@N-doped porous carbon hybrids as superior catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Developing efficient and economical noble-metal free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the essential factors for the industrialization of fuel cells. Recent studies on transition metal ORR catalysts have become the priority to practical low-temperature fuel cells. Herein, we proposed a novel in situ design, FeN nanoparticles (NPs) in an N doped porous carbon matrix (FeN@NPC) derived from metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as high-performance ORR catalysts. The decorated FeN NPs increase the amount of Fe-N/C bonding as catalytic site. Meanwhile, the coated NPC facilitates the mass transport of the reaction and improves the conductivity simultaneously. The catalyst exhibits an onset potential of -0.038 V, a half-wave potential of -0.175 V in 0.1 M KOH, and superior stabilities and methanol tolerance performances to commercial Pt/C catalysts. More importantly, the proposed in situ 'two-step' annealing route provides potential possibilities for producing other non-precious metal catalysts for ORR.

A general synthesis of abundant metal nanoparticles functionalized mesoporous graphitized carbon

“…52 Considering all the above, the excellent electrocatalytic activities and stability of FeCo-MCN-900 can originate from the porous structure and critical sites, including abundant pyridinic N, graphited carbon coated Fe 3 N and Co 3 Fe 7 alloy. 53 Some controlled trials, such as Fe-MCN-900, Co-MCN-900, Fe-MC-600 and FeCo-MC-600 containing part of the catalytic activity sites in FeCo-MCN-900, also exhibited certain activity, but not as well as FeCo-MCN-900 ( Fig. 5 and S8 †).…”

Chemical Confinement and Utility of Lithium Polysulfides in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

“…Carbon materials characterized with high surface area, high conductivity and multifunctionality have shown great potential to be utilized in advanced energy conversion devices . There have been amount of works reported high performance Li–S batteries fabricated by carbon materials .…”

Stable and Efficient Nitrogen‐Containing Carbon‐Based Electrocatalysts for Reactions in Energy‐Conversion Systems

“…[91] The introductiono fT Mc omponents into the interior of already-formed N-C nanotubes may be difficult because of the limited size of the aperture.F ortunately,K uang and coworkers report the preparation of "unzipped" N-C nanotubes through an oxidative exfoliation method ( Figure 22). [74] Zhu and coworkers propose at emplate methodt op repare carbon-aerogel-supported andc arbon-shell-covered WC nanoparticles. As andwich-likes tructure is constructed by synchronously fabricating graphene nanosheets and carbon nanotubes, and this slows down the speed of nanotube stacking and facilitates distribution of Co 9 S 8 (Figure 23 a, b).…”

“…[163] Hou and co-workers use ap olyhedral N-C matrix to provide efficient protection of Fe 2 Nn anoparticles. [74] Zhu and coworkers propose at emplate methodt op repare carbon-aerogel-supported andc arbon-shell-covered WC nanoparticles. [155g] At etragonal structure of N-C encapsulating Co nanoparticles is constructed by Hu and co-workerst hrough as imple solidphase reaction.…”