Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction by In Situ Anchoring Fe2N Nanoparticles on Nitrogen-Doped Pomelo Peel-Derived Carbon
Yiqing Wang 1, Mingyuan Zhu 1, Gang Wang 1,2,3, Bin Dai 1, Feng Yu 1,*
, Zhiqun Tian 4,* and Xuhong Guo 1,5,*
, Zhiqun Tian 4,* and Xuhong Guo 1,5,*
1
Key Laboratory for Green Processing of Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Bingtuan, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China
2
Engineering Research Center of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Shihezi 832003, China
3
Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shihezi 832003, China
4
Collaborative Innovation Center of Renewable Energy Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
5
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nanomaterials 2017, 7(11), 404; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano7110404
Received: 17 October 2017 / Revised: 14 November 2017 / Accepted: 17 November 2017 / Published: 22 November 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials Based Fuel Cells and Supercapacitors)
Abstract
The development of effective oxygen electrode catalysts for renewable energy technologies such as metal-air batteries and fuel cells remains challenging. Here, we prepared a novel high-performance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst comprised of Fe2N nanoparticles (NPs) in situ decorated over an N-doped porous carbon derived from pomelo peel (i.e., Fe2N/N-PPC). The decorated Fe2N NPs provided large quantities of Fe-N-C bonding catalytic sites. The as-obtained Fe2N/N-PPC showed superior onset and half-wave potentials (0.966 and 0.891 V, respectively) in alkaline media (0.1 M KOH) compared to commercial Pt/C through a direct four-electron reaction pathway. Fe2N/N-PPC also showed better stability and methanol tolerance than commercial Pt/C. The outstanding ORR performance of Fe2N/N-PPC was attributed to its high specific surface area and the synergistic effects of Fe2N NPs. The utilization of agricultural wastes as a precursor makes Fe2N/N-PPC an ideal non-precious metal catalyst for ORR applications. View Full-Text
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
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Wang, Y.; Zhu, M.; Wang, G.; Dai, B.; Yu, F.; Tian, Z.; Guo, X. Enhanced Oxygen Reduction Reaction by In Situ Anchoring Fe2N Nanoparticles on Nitrogen-Doped Pomelo Peel-Derived Carbon. Nanomaterials 2017, 7, 404.
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