Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Vesicles with Dual Iron‐Based Sites for Efficient Oxygen Reduction

• Published in: ChemSusChem Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 499 - 505
• Main Authors: Li, Qianru, Wan, Gang, Zhao, Han, Pan, Linyu, Wang, Ning, Zhao, Wanpeng, Zhou, Xiaoxia, Cui, Xiangzhi, Chen, Hangrong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 08-02-2017
• Subjects: carbide; Carbon; Carbon - chemistry; Catalysis; Catalysts; electrocatalyst; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; iron; Iron - chemistry; Media; mesoporous; Models, Molecular; Molecular Conformation; Nitrogen - chemistry; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxygen; Oxygen - chemistry; oxygen reduction reaction; Porosity; Precursors; Reduction; Superstructures; electrocatalyst; iron; oxygen reduction reaction; mesoporous; carbide
• ISSN: 1864-5631; 1864-564X
• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201601396

A nitrogen‐doped vesicle‐like porous carbon with well‐integrated dual iron‐based catalytic sites was developed through direct pyrolysis of inexpensive and abundant precursors. Benefiting from the mesoporous structures with synchronous construction of Fe–Nx and Fe/Fe3C@NC sites, the optimized catalyst exhibited outstanding performance for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media, even superior to the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Detailed characterizations revealed that Fe/Fe3C@NC sites can make major catalytic contributions in basic media, whereas the Fe–Nx sites were found to play an indispensable role for ORR in acidic media.
Two kinds of active sites: A 3D nitrogen‐doped vesicle‐like porous carbon superstructure with well‐integrated dual iron‐based catalytic sites is constructed from renewable precursors through a cost‐effective synthetic approach and shows potential as an outstanding catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction.