Chlorine-Induced Dangling Nitrogen-Bridged Dual-Atom Iron Catalyst for Highly Efficient Oxygen Reduction

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Catalysis

Background:

• Dual-atom catalysts (DACs) offer abundant active sites and tunable electronic structures for electrocatalysis.
• Precisely controlling diatomic-site configurations in DACs for optimal performance is a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To engineer a novel Cl-induced dangling N-bridged dual-atom Fe catalyst (Fe2NC-Cl).
• To investigate the impact of Cl introduction on catalyst structure and electronic properties.
• To optimize oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and stability.

Main Methods:

• Precise engineering of a Cl-induced dangling N-bridged dual-atom Fe catalyst (Fe2NC-Cl).
• Characterization of catalyst structure and electronic properties, focusing on d-band center modulation.
• Electrochemical evaluation of ORR activity and stability in zinc-air batteries.

Main Results:

• The Fe2NC-Cl catalyst demonstrated exceptional ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.924 V and minimal potential decay.
• Integration into quasi-solid-state zinc-air batteries yielded high power densities (231 mW cm-2 at 25 °C, 82 mW cm-2 at -40 °C).
• The catalyst exhibited stable operation for 2400 hours (14400 cycles).

Conclusions:

• Synergistic geometric-electronic engineering is crucial for overcoming the activity-stability trade-off in electrocatalysts.
• The Fe2NC-Cl catalyst provides a universal design paradigm for high-performance electrocatalysts.
• This engineered catalyst shows great promise for energy storage applications.