Dual-nitrogen-source engineered Fe–Nx moieties as a booster for oxygen electroreduction

Wang, Dan; Xiao, Lihui; Yang, Peixia; Xu, Zhengrui; Lu, Xiangyu; Du, Lei; Levin, Oleg; Ge, Liping; Pan, Xiaona; Zhang, Jinqiu; An, Maozhong

doi:10.1039/C9TA01953G

Dual-nitrogen-source engineered Fe–N_x moieties as a booster for oxygen electroreduction

Journal Article · Tue Apr 02 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Materials Chemistry. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C9TA01953G· OSTI ID:1515304

Wang, Dan ^[1]; Xiao, Lihui ^[1]; ^[1]; Xu, Zhengrui ^[2]; Lu, Xiangyu ^[3]; Du, Lei ^[1]; Levin, Oleg ^[4]; Ge, Liping ^[1]; Pan, Xiaona ^[5]; Zhang, Jinqiu ^[1]; An, Maozhong ^[1]

Harbin Inst. of Technology, Harbin (China)
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
ZhuHai Coslight Battery Co., Ltd. (China)
St. Petersburg State Univ. (Russian Federation)
Harbin Inst. of Technology, Harbin (China); Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)

Metal–air batteries, particularly Zn–air batteries, have triggered considerable enthusiasm of communities due to their high theoretical power density. Developing highly active, cost-effective and alternative non-precious metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is pivotal for popularizing zinc–air batteries. The rational design and synthesis of this type of catalyst are therefore critical, but it is still challenging to control the well-defined active sites as expected. In this paper, we report a dual-nitrogen-source mediated route for synergistically controlling the formation of active Fe–N_x moieties that are embedded in the carbon matrix. The facile control of coordination structures of precursors by this dual-nitrogen-source approach is revealed to play a key role in this report. Impressively, the optimized dual-nitrogen-source derived catalyst (i.e. Fe–N–C-800) exhibits prominently enhanced ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.883 V in alkaline electrolyte, higher by 32 mV and 72 mV than those derived from individual nitrogen sources, which is also further evaluated in primary Zn–air batteries. The enhanced ORR activity of Fe–N–C-800 is attributed to the rich Fe–N_x active sites derived from the dual-nitrogen-source approach.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Organization:: Canadian Light Source (CLS); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1515304

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1506716

Journal Information:: Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Journal Name: Journal of Materials Chemistry. A Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 7; ISSN JMCAET; ISSN 2050-7488

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: ENGLISH

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