Well-dispersed Co3Fe7 alloy nanoparticles wrapped in N-doped defect-rich carbon nanosheets as a highly efficient and methanol-resistant catalyst for oxygen-reduction reaction

Gui-Lin Wen; Hua-Jie Niu; Jiu-Ju Feng; Xiliang Luo; Xuexiang Weng; Ai-Jun Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.089

Well-dispersed Co₃Fe₇ alloy nanoparticles wrapped in N-doped defect-rich carbon nanosheets as a highly efficient and methanol-resistant catalyst for oxygen-reduction reaction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Jun 1:569:277-285. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.089. Epub 2020 Feb 22.

Authors

Gui-Lin Wen¹, Hua-Jie Niu¹, Jiu-Ju Feng¹, Xiliang Luo², Xuexiang Weng¹, Ai-Jun Wang³

Affiliations

¹ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China.
² Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
³ College of Geography and Environmental Sciences, College of Chemistry and Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Catalysis Materials, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China. Electronic address: ajwang@zjnu.cn.

PMID: 32114106
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.089

Abstract

To explore alkaline fuel cells in practice, searching low-cost and efficient alternatives to Pt-based catalysts is urgent yet challenging for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, Co₃Fe₇ alloy nanoparticles wrapped in N-doped defect-rich carbon nanosheets (Co₃Fe₇/CNs) were synthesized at 800 °C by a one-step pyrolysis of the mixture (dicyandiamide, iron (II) phthalocyanine (FePc), cobalt (II) phthalocyanine (CoPc) and Fe₂O₃), defined as Co₃Fe₇/CNs-800 for simplicity. The pyrolysis temperature and the dosages of dicyandiamide closely correlated to the ORR performance of the resultant catalysts in 0.1 M KOH solution. Significantly, the optimized Co₃Fe₇/CNs-800 exhibited encouraging onset potential (E_onset = 0.97 V) and half-wave potential (E_1/2 = 0.85 V) in the alkaline media, surpassing commercial Pt/C (50 wt%, E_onset = 0.96 V, E_1/2 = 0.84 V). This work provides a feasible strategy for developing efficient non-noble metal ORR electrocatalysts in the alkaline condition.

Keywords: Bimetallic alloy nanoparticles; Methanol resistance; Nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets; Oxygen reduction; Pyrolysis.