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Catalysis stability enhancement of Fe/Co dual-atom site via phosphorus coordination for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Abstract

Non-precious metal catalysts (NPMCs) are promising low-cost alternatives of Pt/C for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which however suffer from serious stability challenge in the devices of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Different from the traditional strategies of increasing the degree of graphitization of carbon substrates and using less Fenton-reactive metals, we prove here that proper regulation of coordination anions is also an effective way to improve the stability of NPMC. N/P co-coordinated Fe-Co dual-atomic-sites are constructed on ZIF-8 derived carbon support using a molecular precursor of C34H28Cl2CoFeP2 and a “precursor-preselected” method. A composition of FeCoN5P1 is infered for the dual-atom active site by microscopy and spectroscopy analysis. By comparing with N-coordinated references, we investigate the effect of P-coodination on the ORR catalysis of Fe-Co dual-atom catalysts in PEMFC. The metals in FeCoN5P1 have the lower formation energy than those in the solo N-coordinated active sites of FeCoN6 and FeN4, and exhibits a much better fuel cell stability. This anion approach provides a new way to improve the stability of dual-atom catalysts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (No. Z200012) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21975010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yinuo Wang, Xin Wan, Jieyuan Liu, Wenwen Li, Xu Guo, Xiaofang Liu, Jiaxiang Shang & Jianglan Shui

  2. Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of New Light Alloys, Qinghai Provincial Engineering Research Center of High-Performance Light Metal Alloys and Forming, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, China

    Yongcheng Li

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  1. Yinuo Wang
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  2. Xin Wan
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  3. Jieyuan Liu
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  4. Wenwen Li
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Correspondence to Jianglan Shui.

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Catalysis stability enhancement of Fe/Co dual-atom site via phosphorus coordination for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

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Wang, Y., Wan, X., Liu, J. et al. Catalysis stability enhancement of Fe/Co dual-atom site via phosphorus coordination for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Nano Res. 15, 3082–3089 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3966-y

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