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Steering structural mesoporosity and working microenvironment of Fe-N-C catalysts for boosting cathodic mass transport of zinc-air batteries

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Abstract

Transition metal-N-C materials have considerably been demonstrated as promising catalysts for cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in Zn-air batteries. Current efforts mainly focus on tailoring coordination structure and identifying active sites of metal-N-C materials for ORR, while the mass transport of metal-N-C employed in catalytic layers of working electrodes is seldom engineered. Herein, a Fe-N-C single-atom catalyst featuring high mesoporosity and abundant electrochemically accessible active sites is developed through post-loading Fe species into defective N-doped carbon support. The Fe-N-C single-atom catalyst serving as the air cathode of Zn-air battery delivers a peak power density of 189.9 mW cm−2, significantly larger than 114.2 mW cm−2 of commercial Pt/C and 162.9 mW cm−2 of the Fe-N-C contrast catalyst with low mesoporosity. More importantly, through adding hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanoparticles in the catalytic layer of air cathode, the peak power density of Fe-N-C single-atom catalyst is further increased to 212.3 mW cm−2. The increased peak power density is attributed to the enhancement of O2 mass transport, as evidenced by a substantially decreased diffusion layer thickness that is obtained from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21838003, 91834301, 21978278, 21978087), the Shanghai Scientific and Technological Innovation Project (18JC1410500, 19JC1410400), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (222201718002). The authors thank the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (14W1, SSRF), the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (1W1B and soft-X-ray endstation, BSRF), and the Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Photoemission, Magnetic Circular Dichroism and Catalysis/Surface Science Endstations, Endstations at National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Hierarchical Nanomaterials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Hang Shen, Yanbin Qi, Yihua Zhu & Chunzhong Li

  2. Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Hongliang Jiang & Chunzhong Li

  3. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Feringa Nobel Prize Scientist Joint Research Center, Institute of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry & Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China

    Yanyan Jia & Sheng Dai

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  1. Hang Shen
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  5. Hongliang Jiang
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Correspondence to Hongliang Jiang, Yihua Zhu or Chunzhong Li.

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The supporting information is available online at http://chem.scichina.com and http://link.springer.com/journal/11426. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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11426_2022_1303_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Steering structural mesoporosity and working microenvironment of Fe-N-C catalysts for boosting cathodic mass transport of zinc-air batteries

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Shen, H., Jia, Y., Qi, Y. et al. Steering structural mesoporosity and working microenvironment of Fe-N-C catalysts for boosting cathodic mass transport of zinc-air batteries. Sci. China Chem. 65, 1670–1678 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-022-1303-x

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