Atomic Fe/Zn anchored N, S co-doped nano-porous carbon for boosting oxygen reduction reaction

Dawei Liu; Katam Srinivas; Anran Chen; Fei Ma; Hesheng Yu; Ziheng Zhang; Mengya Wang; Yu Wu; Yuanfu Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.156

Atomic Fe/Zn anchored N, S co-doped nano-porous carbon for boosting oxygen reduction reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Apr:635:578-587. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.156. Epub 2023 Jan 2.

Authors

Dawei Liu¹, Katam Srinivas¹, Anran Chen², Fei Ma¹, Hesheng Yu¹, Ziheng Zhang¹, Mengya Wang¹, Yu Wu¹, Yuanfu Chen³

Affiliations

¹ School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
² School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, PR China.
³ School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering, and State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China. Electronic address: yfchen@uestc.edu.cn.

PMID: 36610201
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.156

Abstract

Dual-single-atom catalysts are well-known due to their excellent catalytic performance of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the tunable coordination environment of the active sites. However, it is still challengable to finely modulate the electronic states of the metal atoms and facilely fabricate a catalyst with dual-single atoms homogeneously dispersed on conductive skeletons with good mass transport. Herein, atomic FeN_x/ZnN_x sites anchored N, S co-doped nano-porous carbon plates/nanotubes material (Fe_0.10ZnNSC) is rationally prepared via a facile room-temperature reaction and high-temperature pyrolysis. The as-prepared Fe_0.10ZnNSC catalyst exhibits a positive onset potential of 0.956 V, an impressive half-wave potential of 0.875 V, excellent long-term durability, and a high methanol resistance, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C. The outstanding ORR performance of Fe_0.10ZnNSC is due to its unique nanoarchitecture: a large specific surface area (1092.8 cm² g^-1) and well-developed nanopore structure ensure the high accessibility of active sites; the high conductivity of the carbon matrix guarantees a strong ability to transport electrons to the active sites; and the optimized electronic states of FeN_x and ZnN_x sites possess good oxygen intermediate adsorption/desorption capacity. This strategy can be extended to design and fabricate other non-precious dual-single-atom ORR catalysts.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes; Dual-single-atom catalysts; N,S co-doped nano-porous carbon; Oxygen reduction reaction; Zeolitic imidazolate framework-7.