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Accelerated oxygen reduction on Fe/N/C catalysts derived from precisely-designed ZIF precursors

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Abstract

Fe/N/C material is the most competitive alternative to precious-metal catalysts for oxygen reduction. In view of the present consensus on active centers, further effort is directed at maximizing the density of single Fe atoms. Here, the imperfections in commonly used doping strategy of Fe for the synthesis of zeolitic imidazolateframework (ZIF)-derived Fe/N/C catalysts are revealed. More importantly, a strikingly improved catalyst is obtained by a ‘second pyrolysis’ method and delivers a half-wave potential of 0.825 V (vs. RHE) in acidic media. The strong confinement effect of carbonaceous host accounts for the formation of dense single-atom sites and thus the high activity. Our findings will potentially facilitate future improvement of M/N/C catalysts.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21633008, 21875243, and 21603216), the National Science and Technology Major Project (No. 2017YFB01029002), Jilin Province Science and Technology Development Program (Nos. 20190201270JC and 20180101030JC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Advanced Power Sources, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Ergui Luo, Chen Wang, Yang Li, Xian Wang, Liyuan Gong, Tuo Zhao, Zhao Jin, Junjie Ge, Changpeng Liu & Wei Xing

  2. School of Applied Chemistry and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Ergui Luo, Yang Li, Xian Wang, Liyuan Gong, Tuo Zhao, Junjie Ge, Changpeng Liu & Wei Xing

  3. State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China

    Wei Xing

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  1. Ergui Luo
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  2. Chen Wang
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  3. Yang Li
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  4. Xian Wang
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Correspondence to Junjie Ge, Changpeng Liu or Wei Xing.

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Luo, E., Wang, C., Li, Y. et al. Accelerated oxygen reduction on Fe/N/C catalysts derived from precisely-designed ZIF precursors. Nano Res. 13, 2420–2426 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2868-8

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