Phytic acid-assisted self-templating synthesis of N-P-Fe-tridoped hierarchical porous carbon for efficient oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

Developing efficient, stable and non-precious metal alternatives to platinum-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is significant for many energy conversion devices. Herein, we report a phytic acid-assisted self-templating strategy to fabricate N–P–Fe-tridoped carbon with a hierarchical porosity. The resultant unique structures and well-designed heteroatoms-doping condition impart final catalysts with enhanced mass transfer ability and abundant available active-sites, ensuring high performance in catalyzing ORR. Impressively, the half wave potential of the optimal catalyst is 0.926 V (vs. RHE), which is 40 mV higher than the state-of-art platinum-based catalyst and better than most reported ORR catalysts. Significantly, when applied to a primary Zn–O2 battery, our catalyst comprehensively outperforms the commercial Pt/C catalyst whether on power density or specific capacity.