A Bifunctional Highly Efficient FeNx /C Electrocatalyst

Erling Li; Fa Yang; Zhemin Wu; Yong Wang; Mingbo Ruan; Ping Song; Wei Xing; Weilin Xu

doi:10.1002/smll.201702827

A Bifunctional Highly Efficient FeN_x /C Electrocatalyst

Small. 2018 Feb;14(8). doi: 10.1002/smll.201702827. Epub 2018 Jan 11.

Authors

Erling Li^{1

2}, Fa Yang^{1

2}, Zhemin Wu³, Yong Wang³, Mingbo Ruan¹, Ping Song¹, Wei Xing¹, Weilin Xu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Jilin Province Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Chemical Power, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 5625 Renmin Street, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P.R. China.
³ Center of Electron Microscopy and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.

PMID: 29323454
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201702827

Abstract

Herein, a type of Fe, N-codoped carbon electrocatalyst (FeN_x /C, Fe-N-BCNT#BP) containing bamboo carbon nanotubes and displaying bifunctional high catalytic efficiency for both oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) is reported. It shows high electrocatalytic activity and stability for both the ORR process with onset potential of 1.03 V_RHE in alkaline and the CO2RR to CO with high faradic efficiency up to 90% and selectivity of about 100% at low overpotential of 0.49 V. For CO2RR to CO, it is revealed that Fe₃ C is active but the activity of FeN_x centers is lower than that of C-N-based centers, contrary with that observed for ORR. Due to its low cost and high electrocatalytic performance for these two reduction reactions, the obtained catalyst is very promising for extensive application in future. The revealed huge activity difference of the same types of active sites for different reactions can efficiently guide the synthesis of advanced materials with multifunction.

Keywords: bifunctional catalysts; carbon dioxide reduction reaction; oxygen reduction reaction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't