P–Fe bond oxygen reduction catalysts toward high-efficiency metal–air batteries and fuel cells. Issue 18 (27th April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jin, Huihui; Kou, Zongkui; Cai, Weiwei; Zhou, Huang; Ji, Pengxia; Liu, Bingshuai; Radwan, Amr; He, Daping; Mu, Shichun
• Is Part Of: Journal of materials chemistry. Volume 8:Issue 18(2020)
• Page Start: 9121
• Page End: 9127
• Publication Date: 2020-04-27
• Subjects: Materials -- Research -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Analytic -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 543.0284
• DOI: 10.1039/d0ta02334e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-7488

Abstract

Abstract : An Fe, N, P co-doped carbon framework catalyst (CPFeNPC) with a novel C–P–Fe–N x –P–C system exhibits superior oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic performance and shines new light on the real application of metal–N–C catalysts in fuel cells. Abstract : The oxygen reduction activity of carbon-based metal–N catalysts can be effectively regulated by doping with phosphorus (P). However, no attempt has been made to improve the catalyst performance by directly distributing P atoms at the active centers of Fe–N. In this work, P atoms are connected with Fe–N x moieties in the carbon structure to form P–Fe–N x bond by the strong electron coupling effect in a novel C–P–Fe–N x –P–C system (CPFeNPC), verified by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). As a result, it leads to an enhanced oxygen reduction performance with ultrahigh half-wave potentials of 0.923 V and 0.791 V in alkaline and acidic electrolytes, respectively. Significantly, they are far more than that of commercial Pt/C (0.854 V) under alkaline conditions and even almost the same as that of commercial Pt/C (0.807 V) under acidic conditions. Moreover, when adopted as the cathode catalyst, the assembled Zn–air battery (ZAB) and proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) deliver 1.6-fold and 1.25-fold enhancements in the peak power density compared with that based on commercial Pt/C and conventional Fe–N x –C catalysts, respectively. The developed catalysts with abundant P-coordinated Fe–N x sites shine new light on the real application of metal–N–C catalysts in fuel cells.