Recent progress in heteroatom doping to modulate the coordination environment of M–N–C catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction

Abstract

The development of highly catalytic performance, low-cost, and durable electrocatalysis for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is important to facilitate commercial application of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. In the recent...

Recent progress in iron-series-element-based electrocatalysts for Zn–air batteries

“…121,122 The unique electron distribution of nonmetal-Fe/Co/Ni active centres and vacancies can modulate the adsorption energy of rate-determining intermediates and accelerate OER/ORR and ZAB processes. 123 The heteroatoms doping (B, N, S, P, etc.) is the most widely used and effective pathway to create new catalytic sites for ORR and OER, such as binary (N/S, N/P, N/B, etc.)…”

Carbon-based electrocatalysts for rechargeable Zn–air batteries: design concepts, recent progress and future perspectives

“…Therefore, electronegativity, the ability to acquire an electron, and electron affinity, which refers to the energy given off when a neutral atom becomes an anion, of the heteroatom can be used to explain the catalytic activities of adjacent carbon atoms. 99 To identify the ORR/OER activities of carbon materials doped with different p-block elements (Fig. 4a), Xia et al proposed a descriptor Φ = ( E X / E C ) × ( A X / A C ), where E X and E C represent the electronegativity of the heteroatom and carbon atom, and A X and A C refers to the electron affinity of the heteroatom and carbon atom, to establish a relationship between the intrinsic properties of dopants and catalytic activity.…”

Tailoring the Nonmetal Elements in Carbon-Based Single-Atom Catalysts toward Hydrogen Energy Catalysis

“…In addition to the M–N 3 P configuration, another N/P double coordinated active site was developed. , Wei et al successfully prepared SACs with Co–N 2 P 2 configuration by covalent cross-linking of small molecules containing N and P, which exhibited high ORR catalytic activity in 0.1 M KOH ( E 1/2 = 0.878 V). , The Gibbs free energy diagram of ORR shows that in the second electron transfer substep (HOO*–O, RDS) Co–N 2 P 2 has a lower Δ G (0.271 eV) (0.33 eV), indicating that Co–N 2 P 2 has more effective ORR catalytic activity (Figure e). Mu’s group reported the Fe-based catalyst with a new configuration, in which single-atom Fe coordinated with 2 N and 1 P simultaneously, achieving the optimal N/P ratio .…”