MoP assists the promotion on Fe2P and FeN4 for oxygen reduction and zinc-air battery

Zhiwen Li; Hezhen Wang; Yan Xie; Yifei Zhang; Jianxin Gao; Yinghao Xu; Li Chen; Liangliang Xu; Erdong Wang; Gao Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.150

MoP assists the promotion on Fe₂P and FeN₄ for oxygen reduction and zinc-air battery

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Nov 22:681:16-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.150. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhiwen Li¹, Hezhen Wang², Yan Xie³, Yifei Zhang⁴, Jianxin Gao², Yinghao Xu⁵, Li Chen⁶, Liangliang Xu⁷, Erdong Wang⁸, Gao Li⁹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China. Electronic address: yanxie@dicp.ac.cn.
⁴ Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China; University of Zurich, Department of Chemistry, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Molecular & Process Engineering, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, North Zhongshan Rd. 3663, Shanghai 200062, China.
⁷ Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: xuliang@kaist.ac.kr.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China. Electronic address: edwang@dicp.ac.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis & Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China; Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address: gaoli@dicp.ac.cn.

PMID: 39581074
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.11.150

Abstract

It is of great significance but remains challenging to simultaneously development cost-effective and efficient non-noble metal electrocatalysts (NNMEs) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in both alkaline and acidic solutions. In current work, a multi-component synergism system is developed, which is comprised of molybdenum phosphide (MoP) shell onto iron phosphide clusters anchored on carbon matrixes that embedded with numerous FeN₄ species (MoP/Fe₂P-FeN₄). The optimized MoP/Fe₂P-FeN₄ electrocatalyst delivers a synergistic enhancement in both alkaline and acidic ORR performances: E_1/2: 0.885 V (0.1 M KOH electrolyte) and E_1/2: 0.742 V (0.1 M HClO₄ electrolyte). Furthermore, the equipped zinc-air batteries (ZABs) of MoP/Fe₂P-FeN₄ exhibit a power density of 140.6 mW cm^-2@219.6 mA cm^-2, which surpasses the corresponding Fe₂P-FeN₄ and commercial Pt/C catalyst. The computational calculations reveal that MoP/Fe₂P-FeN₄ shows a relative increase of d-band center closer to Fermin level than Fe₂P-FeN₄, tuning the rate-determining step to conversion of *O to *OOH intermediate, thus significant reducing the energy barrier and enhancing ORR activity. This strategy opens new opportunities to rational design of Fe-based nanocomposites for stimulated ORR and further ZAB activities.

Keywords: Molybdenum and iron phosphide; Multi-component synergism; Oxygen reduction reaction; Single atomic FeN(4); Zinc-air battery.

Published by Elsevier Inc.