Hybrid of Iron Nitride and Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene Aerogel as Synergistic Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract

It is extremely desirable but challenging to create highly active, stable, and low-cost catalysts towards oxygen reduction reaction to replace Pt-based catalysts in order to perform the commercialization of fuel cells. Here, a novel iron nitride/nitrogen doped-graphene aerogel hybrid, synthesized by a facile two-step hydrothermal process, in which iron phthalocyanine is uniformly dispersed and anchored on graphene surface with the assist of π-π stacking and oxygen-containing functional groups, is reported. As a result, there exist strong interactions between Fe x N nanoparticles and graphene substrates, leading to a synergistic effect towards oxygen reduction reaction. It is worth noting that the onset potential and current density of the hybrid are significantly better and the charge transfer resistance is much lower than that of pure nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel, free Fe x N and their physical mixtures. The hybrid also exhibits comparable catalytic activity as commercial Pt/C at the same catalyst loading, while its stability and resistance to methanol crossover are superior. Interestingly, it is found that, apart from the active nature of the hybrid, the large surface area and porosity are responsible for its excellent onset potential and the high density of Fe-N-C sties and small size of Fe x N particles boost charge transfer rate.

Well‐Combined Magnetically Separable Hybrid Cobalt Ferrite/Nitrogen‐Doped Graphene as Efficient Catalyst with Superior Performance for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

“…The nitrogen functional groups in graphene matrix are believed to be active sites, and can serve as favorable nucleation and anchor sites for binding metal cations by coordination bonds, offering the analogue Co N/C catalyst. [ 7,[30][31][32] Moreover, it is also elucidated that nitrogen doping in the defective graphene could help to attach more OH* to form new ORR-active sites, [ 33 ] leading to improve the conductivity of graphene. [ 25,34,35 ] Additionally, 3D N-doped graphene aerogel-supported Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (Fe 3 O 4 /N-GAs) as effi cient cathode catalysts for ORR were reported by Feng and co-workers.…”

Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalysts Based on Coupled Iron Nitride Nanoparticles with Nitrogen-Doped Carbon

“…The structural phase of FexNy prepared by heat-treatment has been reported to depend on preparation conditions. [13][14][15] Therefore, in order to characterize high-performance FexNy/NC electrocatalysts, a series of synthetic parameters that could influence the ORR activity, including the types of Fe salts used, Fe content, heat-treatment temperature, and pyrolysis time were investigated. ORR behaviors of all the catalysts prepared under varying synthetic parameters were compared in 0.1 M KOH solution ( Figure 1).…”

Multifunctionality of Carbon-based Frameworks in Lithium Sulfur Batteries

“…Carbon-based materials possess desirable multifunctionality and have been widely applied in applications such as electrochemical catalysis [71,72], lithium batteries [73,74], solar cells [75,76] and other energy conversion systems [77][78][79]. In addition, carbon-based materials have also shown great potential for application in advanced energy storage and conversion systems [80].…”