Ultrafine Fe/Fe3C decorated on Fe-N_(x)-C as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for efficient Zn-air batteries

Efficient bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for ORR and OER are fundamental to the development of high performance metal-air batteries.Herein,a facile cost-efficient two-step pyrolysis strategy for the fabrication of a bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst has been proposed.The efficient non-preciousmetal-based electrocatalyst,Fe/Fe_(3)C@Fe-N_(x)-C consists of highly curved onion-like carbon shells that encapsulate Fe/Fe_(3)C nanoparticles,distributed on an extensively porous graphitic carbon aerogel.The obtained Fe/Fe_(3)C@Fe-N_(x)-C aerogel exhibited superb electrochemical activity,excellent durability,and high methanol tolerance.The experimental results indicated that the assembly of onion-like carbon shells with encapsulated Fe/Fe_(3)C yielded highly curved carbon surfaces with abundant Fe-Nxactive sites,a porous structure,and enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards ORR and OER,hence displaying promising potential for application as an air cathode in rechargeable Zn-air batteries.The constructed Zn-air battery possessed an exceptional peak power density of~147 mW cm^(-2),outstanding cycling stability(200 cycles,1 h per cycle),and a small voltage gap of 0.87 V.This study offers valuable insights regarding the construction of low-cost and highly active bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for efficient air batteries.

Spatial confinement of zeolitic imidazolate framework deposits by porous carbon nanospheres for dual-atom catalyst towards high-performance oxygen reduction reaction

Dual atom catalysts(DACs),are promising electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)on account of the potential dual-atom active sites for the optimized adsorption of catalytic intermediates and the lower reaction energy barriers.Herein,spatial confinement strategy to fabricate DACs with well-defined Fe,Co dual-atom active site is proposed by implanting zeolitic imidazolate frameworks inside the pores of highly porous carbon nanospheres(Fe/Co-SAs-Nx-PCNSs).The atomically dispersed dual-atom active sites facilitate the adsorption/desorption of intermediates.Furthermore,the spatial confinement effect protects metal atoms aggregating.Benefiting from the rich accessible dual-atom active sites and boosted mass transport,we achieve remarkable ORR performance with half-wave potential up to 0.91 and 0.8 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE)),and long-term stability up to 10 h in both alkaline and acidic electrolytes.The remarkably enhanced ORR catalytic property of our as-developed DACs is in the rank of excellence for 1%.The as-developed rechargeable Zn-air battery(ZAB)with Fe/Co-SAs-Nx-PCNSs air cathode delivers ultrahigh power density of 216 mW·cm^(−2),outstanding specific capacity of 813 mAh·g^(−1),and promising cycling operation durability over 160 h.The flexible Zn-air battery also exhibits excellent specific capacity,cycling stability,and flexibility performance.This work opens up a new pathway for the multiscale design of efficient electrocatalysts with atomically dispersed multiple active sites.