Bottom-up synthesis of high-performance nitrogen-enriched transition metal/graphene oxygen reduction electrocatalysts both in alkaline and acidic solution.
Oxygen reduction electrocatalysts with low cost and excellent performance are urgently required for large-scale application in fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Though nitrogen-enriched transition metal/graphene hybrids (N-TM/G, TM = Fe, Co, and Ni and related compounds) have been developed as novel substitutes for precious metal catalysts (PMCs) towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), a significant challenge still remains for simple and efficient synthesis of N-TM/G catalysts with satisfactory electrocatalytic behavior. Herein, we demonstrate a universal bottom-up strategy for efficient fabrication of strongly-coupled N-TM/G catalysts. This strategy is implemented via direct polymerization of transition metal phthalocyanine (TMPc) in the two-dimensional confined space of in situ generated g-C3N4 and a subsequent pyrolysis. Such a space-confined bottom-up synthesis route successfully constructs a strongly-coupled triple junction of transition metal-graphitic carbon-nitrogen-doped graphene (TM-GC-NG) with extensive controllability over the specific surface area, nitrogen content/types as well as the states of metal. As a result, the optimized N-Fe/G materials have promising potential as high-performance NPMCs towards ORR both in alkaline and acidic solution.
College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Yudao St. 29, 210016, Nanjing, P. R. China. liangyy403@126.com.
Qingxue
Q
Lai
Qingwen
Q
Gao
Qi
Q
Su
Yanyu
Y
Liang
Yuxi
Y
Wang
Zhi
Z
Yang