The design of single iron atoms dispersed with nitrogen coordination environment electrocatalyst for zinc -air battery

Abstract

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial to the development of fuel cell and metal-air battery. Metals with atomic-level dispersion has been considered as the effective nano-technologies to promote the activity and stability of catalysts for ORR. Herein, we designed Fe/N-doped porous carbon (Fe-NPC) as efficient ORR catalysts in both alkaline and acid electrolyte through a simplified one-pot method. The Fe species were atomically dispersed in the synthesized materials by FeN4C10 moieties and exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance. Experimental and theoretical results showed that Fe–N4 sites existed in Fe-NPC endowed it with high intrinsic catalytic activity for ORR. When utilized as air electrode catalyst in Zn-air battery, Fe-NPC material achieved a maximum power density (126.0 mW cm−2) and could operate steadily for over 11 h. This work presents a simplified strategy in the design and synthesis of sing-atom catalysts electrocatalysts with high activity and stability, paving the way for the mass production and mechanistic studies of catalysts in reality.