Oxygen reduction reaction performance of Fe-N-C catalyst with dual nitrogen source

Abstract

Fe-N-C catalysts are potential substitutes to displace electrocatalysts containing noble chemical elements in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, their application is hampered by unsatisfactory activity and stability issues. The structures and morphologies of Fe-N-C catalysts have been found to be crucial for the number of active sites and local bonding structures. In this work, dicyandiamide (DCDA) and polyaniline (PANI) are shown to act as dual nitrogen sources to tune the morphology and structure of the catalyst and facilitate the ORR process. The dual nitrogen sources not only increase the amount of nitrogen doping atoms in the electrocatalytic Fe-C-N material, but also maintain a high nitrogen-pyrrole/nitrogen-graphitic: (N-P)/(N-G) value, improving the distribution density of catalytic active sites in the material. With a high surface area and amount of N-doping, the Fe-N-C catalyst developed can achieve an improved half-wave potential of 0.886 V (vs. RHE) in alkaline medium, and a better stability and methanol resistance than commercial Pt/C catalyst.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Fe-N-C / oxygen reduction reaction / nitrogen-doped / dual nitrogen source

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Grant No. 23KJD430007), Qinglan Project of Jiangsu Province, Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51902145), Nanjing Technology Innovation Team of Optometric Materials and Application and Doctoral Start-up Fund Research supported by Jinling Institute of Technology (jit-b-202026), and the European Union (ERDF) and Région Nouvelle Aquitaine.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-024-0956-2 and is accessible for authorized users.

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