title: Confining Iron Carbide Nanocrystals inside CNx@CNT toward an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.
abstract: The development of low-cost electrocatalysts with comparable activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to substitute platinum-based catalysts is imperative but still challenging for the commercialization of fuel cells. Herein, we reported a strategy to effectively confine iron carbide nanocrystals in N-doped carbon coated on carbon nanotubes (CNx@CNT), which prevented the agglomeration of iron carbide during pyrolysis and thus provided the sufficient highly active catalytic sites. Together with the benefit from three-dimensional conductive network of CNT-based core-shell structure for fast electron transfer and rapid mass transfer, the developed nanocatalyst exhibited the significantly enhanced electrocatalytic activity for ORR, as well as high durability and methanol tolerance. Moreover, it was interestingly found that the types of the confined iron compounds appreciably affected the performance of the catalysts, and Fe3C might be most effective on improving ORR activity in this case.
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Jie
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Song
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Zidong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: ‡Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, 2 North First Street, Zhongguancun, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Wan
keywords: carbon nanotubes; iron carbides; nitrogen-doped carbon; non-noble-metal catalysts; oxygen reduction reaction