Role of the Metal Precursor in Preparing Dual-Atom Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Xiu Zhu; Genlin Liu; Xiafang Tao; Pengwei Huang; Qing Wang; Guangbo Chen; Juan Yang; Liang Zhang; Yazhou Zhou

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c06005

Role of the Metal Precursor in Preparing Dual-Atom Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction

ACS Omega. 2023 Oct 24;8(44):41708-41717. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c06005. eCollection 2023 Nov 7.

Authors

Xiu Zhu¹, Genlin Liu², Xiafang Tao^{1

3}, Pengwei Huang¹, Qing Wang⁴, Guangbo Chen⁵, Juan Yang¹, Liang Zhang², Yazhou Zhou^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, Jiangsu, China.
² Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, Jiangsu, China.
³ Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz 55128, Germany.
⁴ Institute for Catalysis, Hokkaido University, Kita 21-10, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan.
⁵ Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry &; Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed), Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden 01062, Germany.

Abstract

Dual-atom catalysts (DACs) have arisen as a novel type of heterogeneous catalyst that extends from single-atom catalysts (SACs) by incorporating two kinds of metals. These materials have demonstrated enhanced performance when compared to SACs. The choice of metal precursors plays an important role in the synthesis of DACs. Here, we choose Fe and Co as DAC models and study types, contents, molar ratios of two precursors, and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. The Fe,Co DACs were synthesized by an adsorption-annealing approach, using nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon (NC) as the support. As a result, the adsorption ability of metal precursors on the support determines the metal loadings in Fe and Co DACs, leading to differences in ORR performance. The Fe precursors win the adsorption competitions in most cases, resulting in a much higher loading than that of Co precursors. Importantly, it is difficult to increase the precursor content by simply increasing the initial amount. Choosing the right combination of metal precursors, such as ferrocene and cobalt chloride, can yield Fe,Co DACs with enhanced ORR performance..