A nitrogen and sulfur co-doped iron-based electrocatalyst derived from iron and biomass ligand towards the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media

Haiyan Zhao; Li Chen; Yinghao Xu; He Wang; Jia-Yi Li; Yan Xie; Li Wang

doi:10.1039/d1dt01873f

A nitrogen and sulfur co-doped iron-based electrocatalyst derived from iron and biomass ligand towards the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media

Dalton Trans. 2021 Oct 12;50(39):13943-13950. doi: 10.1039/d1dt01873f.

Authors

Haiyan Zhao¹, Li Chen², Yinghao Xu³, He Wang³, Jia-Yi Li¹, Yan Xie⁴, Li Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Liaoning Key Laboratory of Plasma Technology, School of Physics and Materials Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116600, Liaoning, P. R. China. [email protected].
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, P. R. China.
³ Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, P. R. China.
⁴ Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongshan Road 457, Dalian 116023, P. R. China. [email protected].

PMID: 34528974
DOI: 10.1039/d1dt01873f

Abstract

Research on highly efficient nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon materials is crucial for the development of Fe-based non-noble metal electrocatalysts (NNMEs) as alternatives to platinum-group metal-based electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. In this work, complexes were derived from iron salt and biomass ligands, subsequently mixed with active carbon nanoparticles (NPs) and pyrolyzed at 800 °C to obtain the resulting electrocatalysts Fe/NSC (800) and Fe/NC (800). Through screening the synthetic parameters, it was found that the N and S co-decorated Fe-based electrocatalyst of Fe/NSC (800) displays better ORR performances in terms of the onset potential (E_onset) and the half-wave potential (E_1/2) than those of the Fe-free electrocatalyst of NSC (800) and the N-doped electrocatalyst of Fe/NC (800). The improved ORR activity can be mainly ascribed to the FeN₄ active sites, as well as the additional S-doping within the carbon matrixes. Additionally, Fe/NSC (800) displays good durability superior to that of 20 wt% Pt/C in 0.1 M KOH solution. This synthetic approach is beneficial for the synthesis of NNMEs with biomass ligands for boosting the ORR performances in an alkaline solution.