Enhanced utilization of active sites of Fe/N/C catalysts by pore-in-pore structures for ultrahigh mass activity

Abstract

Carbon material doped with nitrogen and transition metal is a kind of promising candidate of the platinum for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process due to its low cost, efficiency and stability. Here we demonstrate an original type of Fe/N/C catalyst based on pore-in-pore structures (P–P Fe/N/C), showing one of the highest oxygen reduction reaction performances among all reported Fe/N/C-type catalysts (onset potential of 0.995 V, half-wave potential of 0.881 V vs. RHE with a relatively low mass loading of 0.32 mg cm−2 and long-term durability (97% relative current in 60 000 s operation) in alkaline media. Such outstanding performances can be ascribed to the efficient active sites activated by the encapsulated atomic and subnanoscale iron, and great exposure of these active sites due to the unique pore-in-pore hierarchical construction. Once assembled in lithium–O2 batteries, a specific capacity of 7250 mA h g−1 at 70 mA g−1 can be obtained by the P–P Fe/N/C catalyst. Moreover, upon cycling, the P–P Fe/N/C electrode can be cycled 150 times with no capacity loss, which is much longer than six cycles of pure Super P air electrode. These results evidently reveal the developed Fe/N/C catalyst holds great promise to serve as an alternative to the conventional Pt-based noble metal catalysts.