Electrospun single iron atoms dispersed carbon nanofibers as high performance electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction in acid and alkaline media

Liang Dong; Jianbing Zang; Weiping Wang; Xin Liu; Yan Zhang; Jing Su; Yanhui Wang; Xiumei Han; Jinsheng Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.120

Electrospun single iron atoms dispersed carbon nanofibers as high performance electrocatalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction in acid and alkaline media

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Mar 22:564:134-142. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.120. Epub 2019 Dec 28.

Authors

Liang Dong¹, Jianbing Zang², Weiping Wang², Xin Liu³, Yan Zhang⁴, Jing Su², Yanhui Wang⁵, Xiumei Han³, Jinsheng Li³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Dielectric and Electrolyte Functional Material Hebei Province, School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China. Electronic address: dongliang@neuq.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Dielectric and Electrolyte Functional Material Hebei Province, School of Resources and Materials, Northeastern University at Qinhuangdao, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China.
⁴ College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China; Institute for Biosensing, and College of Life Sciences, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, PR China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China. Electronic address: diamond_wangyanhui@163.com.

PMID: 31911219
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.12.120

Abstract

The metal (Fe/Co), nitrogen co-doped carbon represent an important class of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which can be obtained via the thermal treatment of transition-metal macrocycles (TMMs). However, the N₄-chelate complex with metal atom (M-N₄) moieties as major activity site for ORR are easily destroyed to form inorganic metal species during simple pyrolysis of TMMs. In this report, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning containing a small amount of hemin (chloroprotoporphyrin IX iron(III), TMMs). The electrospun nanofibers were converted into Fe, N co-doped carbon nanofibers (Fe-N-CNFs) through preoxidized and thermal treatment. The PAN macromolecules can prevent hemin from aggregation during the process of pyrolysis. The Fe elemental mapping demonstrated that Fe species probably existed in a single atom state. The Fe K-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectrum of Fe-N-CNFs proved that the Fe-N₄ moieties have been successfully reserved. The X-ray photoelectron spectra of Fe-N-CNFs indicated that the amount of Fe-N₄ moieties increased with the increased percent of hemin. Therefore, the Fe-N-CNFs exhibited the higher catalytic activity for ORR compared with Pt electrocatalysts. Furthermore, the Fe1-N-CNFs displayed higher stability and methanol tolerance than Pt/C.

Keywords: Carbon nanofiber; Electrospinning; Hemin; Oxygen reduction reaction.