Abstract
As a widely investigated category of non-precious metal electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), metal-Nx-C materials are gaining increasing attention both in the rational synthesis of catalysts and in the study of structure-activity relationships. Carbon supports are important to the performance of these catalysts toward the ORR. Graphene has been used in many electrocatalysts due to its notable characteristics, such as large specific surface area, and high conductivity, but it is further limited by the tendency to agglomerate. Here, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were employed to effectively suppress the agglomeration of graphene. The binary carbon complex was loaded with iron phthalocyanine (FePc), achieving better activity than commercialized Pt/C (30 wt%) with a positive shift of half-wave potential of 20 mV after heat-treatment at 750°C. SEM, TEM, XPS and XAS measurements revealed that the insertion of CNTs not only suppressed the stacking of graphene layers, but also enhanced the catalytic performance during the RRDE and Zn-air battery tests in alkaline electrolyte by exposing more ORR active sites in the Fe-Nx structure.
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