The Solid-Phase Synthesis of an Fe-N-C Electrocatalyst for High-Power Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

The environmentally friendly synthesis of highly active Fe-N-C electrocatalysts for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is desirable but remains challenging. A simple and scalable method is presented to fabricate Fe^II -doped ZIF-8, which can be further pyrolyzed into Fe-N-C with 3 wt % of Fe exclusively in Fe-N₄ active moieties. Significantly, this Fe-N-C derived acidic PEMFC exhibits an unprecedented current density of 1.65 A cm^-2 at 0.6 V and the highest power density of 1.14 W cm^-2 compared with previously reported NPMCs. The excellent PEMFC performance can be attributed to the densely and atomically dispersed Fe-N₄ active moieties on the small and uniform catalyst nanoparticles.