Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 799-806.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(19)63405-4

• Special Column on Electrocatalysis • Previous Articles     Next Articles

ZnCl2 salt facilitated preparation of FeNC: Enhancing the content of active species and their exposure for highly-efficient oxygen reduction reaction

Zhan Xin Maoa, Min Jie Wanga, Lu Liub, Lishan Penga, Siguo Chena, Li Lia, Jing Lia, Zidong Weia   

  1. a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China;
    b School of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
  • Received:2019-10-03 Revised:2019-11-13 Online:2020-05-18 Published:2019-12-31
  • Contact: S1872-2067(19)63405-4
  • Supported by:
    This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFB0101202), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21878030, 91534205 and 21436003).

Abstract: Introducing catalytically-active Fe and N into carbon materials results in promising FeNC catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. However, the doped Fe and N species are frequently subject to heavy loss in a traditional carbonization process owing to Fe agglomeration and evaporation of N-contained small molecules. Besides, pyrolysis may make materials sintering which embeds a large number of active sites in the bulk phase and impedes direct exposure of reactive centers to the reactants. We here report that when calcinations, the addition of ZnCl2, an ordinary salt with very wide melting temperature range well covering the carbonization process of the precursor iron porphyrin, can significantly enhance the doping level of the active species and simultaneously create highly porous structures for FeNC catalysts. The obtained FeNC demonstrates ultrahigh catalytic activities even significantly better than Pt/C in oxygen reduction reaction.

Key words: FeNC Catalyst, ZnCl2, Porous carbon, Oxygen reduction reaction, Fuel cell