Atomically dispersed Fe sites on hierarchically porous carbon nanoplates for oxygen reduction reaction

Developing cost-effective,robust and stable non-precious metal catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) is of paramount importance for electrochemical energy conversion devices such as fuel cells and metal-air batteries.Although Fe-N-C single atom catalysts(SACs) have been hailed as the most promising candidate due to the optimal binding strength of ORR intermediates on the Fe-N_(4) sites,they suffer from serious mass transport limitations as microporous templates/substrates,i.e.,zeolitic imidazolate frameworks(ZIFs),are usually employed to host the active sites.Motivated by this challenge,we herein develop a hydrogen-bonded organic framework(HOF)-assisted pyrolysis strategy to construct hierarchical micro/mesoporous carbon nanoplates for the deposition of atomically dispersed Fe-N_(4) sites.Such a design is accomplished by employing HOF nanoplates assembled from 2-aminoterephthalic acid(NH_(2)-BDC) and p-phenylenediamine(PDA) as both soft templates and C,N precursors.Benefitting from the structural merits inherited from HOF templates,the optimized catalyst(denoted as Fe-N-C SAC-950) displays outstanding ORR activity with a high half-wave potential of 0.895 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE)) and a small overpotential of 356 mV at 10 mA cm^(-2) for the oxygen evolution reaction(OER).More excitingly,its application potential is further verified by delivering superb rechargeability and cycling stability with a nearly unfading charge-discharge gap of 0.72 V after 160 h.Molecular dynamics(MD) simulations reveal that micro/mesoporous structure is conducive to the rapid mass transfer of O_(2),thus enhancing the ORR performance.In situ Raman results further indicate that the conversion of O_(2) to~*O_(2)-the rate-determining step(RDS) for Fe-N-C SAC-950.This work will provide a versatile strategy to construct single atom catalysts with desirable catalytic properties.

Correlating Fe source with Fe-N-C active site construction： Guidancefor rational design of high-performance ORR catalyst

Pyrolyzed Fe-N_X/C materials derived from Fe-doped ZIF-8 are recently emerged as promising alternatives to noble metal platinum-based catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) and elucidating the dependacne of Fe source on the active site structure and final ORR performance is highly desirbale for further development of these materials. Here, we designed and synthesized a series of Fe-N-C catalysts using ZIF-8 and various iron salts(Fe(acac)_3, FeCl_3, Fe(NO_3)_3) as precusors. We found that the iron precursors,mainly the molecular size, hydrolysis extent, do play a major role in determining the final morphology of Fe, namely forming the Fe-Nx coordination or Fe_3C nanoparticles, as well as the site density, therefore,significantly affecting the ORR activity. Among the three iron sources, Fe(acac)_3 is most advantageous to the preferential formation of single-atom Fe-Nx active sites and the derived catalyst demonstrated best ORR performance.

Low-temperature synthesis of nitrogen doped carbon nanotubes as promising catalyst support for methanol oxidation

The electrochemical methanol oxidation reaction(MOR) is of paramount importance for direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC) application, where efficient catalysts are required to facilitate the complicated multiple charge transfer process. The catalyst support not only determines the dispersion status of the catalysts particles, but also exerts great influence on the electronic structure of the catalysts, thereby altering its intrinsic activity. Herein, we demonstrated that nitrogen atoms, assisted by the pre-treatment of carbon matrix with oxidants, can be easily doped into carbon nanotubes at low temperature. The obtained nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes can effectively improve the dispersion of the supported platinum nanoparticles and facilitate the MOR by modifying the electronic structure of platinum atoms,through catalyst-support interaction.

Hydrogen etching induced hierarchical meso/micro-pore structure with increased active density to boost ORR performance of Fe-N-C catalyst

Rational regulation on pore structure and active site density plays critical roles in enhancing the performance of Fe-N-C catalysts. As the microporous structure of the carbon substrate is generally regarded as the active site hosts, its hostility to electron/mass transfer could lead to the incomplete fulfillment of the catalytic activity. Besides, the formation of inactive metallic Fe particles during the conventional catalyst synthesis could also decrease the active site density and complicate the identification of real active site. Herein, we developed a facial hydrogen etching methodology to yield single site Fe-N-C catalysts featured with micro/mesoporous hierarchical structure. The hydrogen concentration in pyrolysis process was designated to effectively regulate the pore structure and active site density of the resulted catalysts.The optimized sample achieves excellent ORR catalytic performance with an ultralow H2O2 yield(1%)and superb stability over 10,000 cycles. Our finding provides new thoughts for the rational design of hierarchically porous carbon-based materials and highly promising non-precious metal ORR catalysts.

Stabilizing high-efficiency iridium single atoms via lattice confinement for acidic oxygen evolution

Stable and efficient single atom catalysts(SACs)are highly desirable yet challenging in catalyzing acidic oxygen evolution reaction(OER).Herein,we report a novel iridium single atom catalyst structure,with atomic Ir doped in tetragonal PdO matrix(IrSAs-PdO)via a lattice-confined strategy.The optimized IrSAs-PdO-0.10 exhibited remarkable OER activity with an overpotential of 277 mV at 10 mA·cm^(-2) and long-term stability of 1000 h in 0.5 M H_(2)SO_(4).Furthermore,the turnover frequency attains 1.6 s^(-1) at an overpotential of 300 mV with a 24-fold increase in the intrinsic activity.The high activity originates from isolated iridium sites with low valence states and decreased Ir–O bonding covalency,and the excellent stability is a result of the effective confinement of iridium sites by Ir–O–Pd motifs.Moreover,we demonstrated for the first time that SACs have great potential in realizing ultralow loading of iridium(as low as microgram per square center meter level)in a practical water electrolyzer.

Suppressing the lattice oxygen diffusion via high-entropy oxide construction towards stabilized acidic water oxidation

The scale-up deployment of ruthenium(Ru)-based oxygen evolution reaction(OER)electrocatalysts in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis(PEMWE)is greatly restricted by the poor stability.As the lattice-oxygen-mediated mechanism(LOM)has been identified as the major contributor to the fast performance degradation,impeding lattice oxygen diffusion to inhibit lattice oxygen participation is imperative,yet remains challenging due to the lack of efficient approaches.Herein,we strategically regulate the bonding nature of Ru–O towards suppressed LOM via Ru-based high-entropy oxide(HEO)construction.The lattice disorder in HEOs is believed to increase migration energy barrier of lattice oxygen.As a result,the screened Ti_(23)Nb_(9)Hf_(13)W_(12)Ru_(43)O_(x) exhibits 11.7 times slower lattice oxygen diffusion rate,84%reduction in LOM ratio,and 29 times lifespan extension compared with the state-of-the-art RuO_(2) catalyst.Our work opens up a feasible avenue to constructing stabilized Ru-based OER catalysts towards scalable application.

Microenvironment regulation of M-N-C single-atom catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction

The development of cost-effective,robust,and durable electrocatalysts to replace the expensive Pt-based catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)is the trending frontier research topic in renewable energy and electrocatalysis.Particular attention has been paid to metal-nitrogen-carbon(M-N-C)single atom catalysts(SACs)due to their maximized atom utilization efficiency,biomimetic active site,and distinct electronic structure.More importantly,their catalytic properties can be further tailored by rationally regulating the microenvironment of active sites(i.e.,M-N coordination number,heteroatom doping and substitution.Herein,we present a comprehensive summary of the recent advancement in the microenvironment regulation of MN-C SACs towards improved ORR performance.The coordination environment manipulation regarding central metal and coordinated atoms is first discussed,focusing on the structure-function relationship.Apart from the near-range coordination,longrange substrate modulation including heteroatom doping,defect engineering is discussed as well.Besides,the synergy mechanism of nanoparticles and single atom sites to tune the electron cloud density at the active sites is summarized.Finally,we provide the challenges and outlook of the development of M-N-C SACs.

Polymer-chelation approach to high-performance Fe-Nx-C catalyst towards oxygen reduction reaction

Pyrolyzed Fe-Nx-C with atomically dispersed Fe-Nxsites are hailed as the most promising alternative to the noble metal Pt-based catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction(ORR). However, the conventional micropore-confinement synthetic approach usually causes the insufficient utilization of active sites and mass transport resistance as the sites are located inside the micropore. We herein report a polymerchelation strategy to directly disperse the Fe-Nxactive sites onto the carbon surface. The N-rich monomer was in-situ polymerized on the carbon support and then chelated with Fe. The strong Fe-N chelating interaction is crucial to suppress Fe aggregation when undergoing the high-temperature pyrolysis. Due to the enriched surface sites, hierarchically porous structure and excellent conductivity of carbon support,the optimal catalyst(denoted as Fe-Nx-C@C-900) exhibits impressive ORR activity of onset and half-wave potential of 1.02 and 0.87 V, respectively, superior to the Pt/C benchmark.

Revealing the true origin of size-dependent Pd/C catalytic behavior towards formic acid decomposition

Formic acid decomposition(FAD)is considered a promising hydrogen production route to facilitate the ambient storage and on demand release of hydrogen energy.To optimize the catalysts for FAD,efforts have been paid to explore the underlying reason for the varied catalytic activity among catalysts with similar composition but differed structure.However,such endeavors are highly challenging due to the deeply intermingled effects of electronic structure,particle size,and facets,etc.Herein,to separately evaluate the respective effects of these factors,a series of catalysts with the same surface electronic structure and different particle size was prepared by cation dipole adjustment method.The performance and characterization results showed that the catalysts with different sizes and facets exhibited similar intrinsic activity with deviation of less than 5%.However,they showed 252%deviation of site stability,indicating that only the optimized electronic structure could enhance the intrinsic activity and a smaller particle size could extend the catalyst’s life.

Recent Advances in Stability Improvement Strategies of M-N_(x)/C Catalysts Towards Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Although fuel cells possess advantages of high energy conversion efficiency and zero-carbon emission,their large-scale commercialization is restricted by expensive and scarce platinum(Pt)catalysts.Metal-nitrogen-carbon(M-Nx/C)catalysts are hailed as the most promising candidates to replace Pt due to their considerable oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)activity and low cost.Despite tremendous progress in terms of active site identification and activity improvement being achieved in the past few decades,the M-Nx/C catalysts still suffer from insufficient durability,which drastically limits their practical application.In this regard,understanding degradation mechanisms and customizing stabilization strategies are of significant importance yet challengeable.In this review,we summarize the recent advances in the stability improvement of M-Nx/C catalysts.The stability test protocols of the M-Nx/C are firstly introduced.Subsequently,with the combination of advanced ex situ and in situ characterization techniques and density functional theory calculation,we present a comprehensive overview of the main degradation mechanisms during ORR process.Aiming at these deactivation issues,a variety of novel improvement strategies are developed to enhance the stability of M-Nx/C.Finally,the current challenges and prospects to design highly stable M-Nx/C catalysts are also proposed.

Copper‑Based Catalysts for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction to Multicarbon Products

Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into fuel and chemicals with added value represents an appealing approach to reduce the greenhouse effect and realize a carbon-neutral cycle,which has great potential in mitigating global warming and effectively storing renewable energy.The electrochemical CO_(2) reduction reaction(CO_(2)RR)usually involves multiproton coupling and multielectron transfer in aqueous electrolytes to form multicarbon products(C_(2+) products),but it competes with the hydrogen evolution reaction(HER),which results in intrinsically sluggish kinetics and a complex reaction mechanism and places higher requirements on the design of catalysts.In this review,the advantages of electrochemical CO_(2) reduction are briefly introduced,and then,different categories of Cu-based catalysts,including monometallic Cu catalysts,bimetallic catalysts,metal-organic frameworks(MOFs)along with MOF-derived catalysts and other catalysts,are summarized in terms of their synthesis method and conversion of CO_(2) to C2+products in aqueous solution.The catalytic mechanisms of these catalysts are subsequently discussed for rational design of more efficient catalysts.In response to the mechanisms,several material strategies to enhance the catalytic behaviors are proposed,including surface facet engineering,interface engineering,utilization of strong metal-support interactions and surface modification.Based on the above strategies,challenges and prospects are proposed for the future development of CO_(2)RR catalysts for industrial applications.

Key role of electron accessibility at the noble metal-free catalytic interface in hydrogen evolution reaction

The reactant concentration at the catalytic interface holds the key to the activity of electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction(HER),mainly referring to the capacity of adsorbing hydrogen and electron accessibility.With hydrogen adsorption free energy(ΔGH)as a reactivity descriptor,the volcano curve based on Sabatier principle is established to evaluate the hydrogen evolution activity of catalysts.However,the role of electron as reactant received insufficient attention,especially for noble metal-free compound catalysts with poor conductivity,leading to cognitive gap between electronic conductivity and apparent catalytic activity.Herein we successfully construct a series of catalyst models with gradient conductivities by regulating molybdenum disulfide(MoS_(2))electronic bandgap via a simple solvothermal method.We demonstrate that the conductivity of catalysts greatly affects the overall catalytic activity.We further elucidate the key role of intrinsic conductivity of catalyst towards water electrolysis,mainly concentrating on the electron transport from electrode to catalyst,the electron accumulation process at the catalyst layer,and the charge transfer progress from catalyst to reactant.Theoretical and experimental evidence demonstrates that,with the enhancement in electron accessibility at the catalytic interface,the dominant parameter governing overall HER activity gradually converts from electron accessibility to combination of electron accessibility and hydrogen adsorbing energy.Our results provide the insight from various perspective for developing noble metal-free catalysts in electrocatalysis beyond HER.