Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Fei Xiao; Xiang Liu; Cheng Jun Sun; Inhui Hwang; Qi Wang; Zhiwen Xu; Yian Wang; Shangqian Zhu; Hsi Wen Wu; Zidong Wei; Liping Zheng; Daojian Cheng; Meng Gu; Gui Liang Xu; Khalil Amine; Minhua Shao

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Fei Xiao, Xiang Liu, Cheng Jun Sun, Inhui Hwang, Qi Wang, Zhiwen Xu, Yian Wang, Shangqian Zhu, Hsi Wen Wu, Zidong Wei, Liping Zheng, Daojian Cheng, Meng Gu, Gui Liang Xu, Khalil Amine, Minhua Shao

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fe-N-C with atomically dispersed Fe single atoms is the most promising candidate to replace platinum for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. However, the conventional synthesis procedures require quantities solvents and metal precursors, sluggish adsorption process, and tedious washing, resulting in limited metal doping and uneconomical for large-scale production. For the first time, Fe2O3 is adopted as the Fe precursor to derive abundant single Fe atoms dispersed on carbon surfaces. The Fe-N-C catalyst synthesized by this simple method shows an excellent ORR activity with half-wave potentials of 0.82 and 0.90 V in acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively. A single fuel cell with an optimized Fe-N-C cathode shows a high peak power density of 0.84 W cm-2. The solid-state transformation synthesis method developed in this study may shed light on mass production of single-atom-based catalysts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3633-3639
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	21
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702
Publication status	Published - 28 Apr 2021
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Metal organic framework
proton exchange membrane fuel cell
single-atom catalyst
solid-state transformation

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10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

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Xiao, F., Liu, X., Sun, C. J., Hwang, I., Wang, Q., Xu, Z., Wang, Y., Zhu, S., Wu, H. W., Wei, Z., Zheng, L., Cheng, D., Gu, M., Xu, G. L., Amine, K., & Shao, M. (2021). Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells. Nano Letters, 21(8), 3633-3639. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

@article{a9aa8a56e5804e8a98f6ba56f952eabf,

title = "Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells",

abstract = "Fe-N-C with atomically dispersed Fe single atoms is the most promising candidate to replace platinum for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. However, the conventional synthesis procedures require quantities solvents and metal precursors, sluggish adsorption process, and tedious washing, resulting in limited metal doping and uneconomical for large-scale production. For the first time, Fe2O3 is adopted as the Fe precursor to derive abundant single Fe atoms dispersed on carbon surfaces. The Fe-N-C catalyst synthesized by this simple method shows an excellent ORR activity with half-wave potentials of 0.82 and 0.90 V in acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively. A single fuel cell with an optimized Fe-N-C cathode shows a high peak power density of 0.84 W cm-2. The solid-state transformation synthesis method developed in this study may shed light on mass production of single-atom-based catalysts.",

keywords = "Metal organic framework, proton exchange membrane fuel cell, single-atom catalyst, solid-state transformation",

author = "Fei Xiao and Xiang Liu and Sun, {Cheng Jun} and Inhui Hwang and Qi Wang and Zhiwen Xu and Yian Wang and Shangqian Zhu and Wu, {Hsi Wen} and Zidong Wei and Liping Zheng and Daojian Cheng and Meng Gu and Xu, {Gui Liang} and Khalil Amine and Minhua Shao",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFB0102900), the Research Grant Council (N_HKUST610/17 and C6011-20GF) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Foshan-HKUST Project (FSUST19-FYTRI07) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (SGDX2019081623340748). Research at Argonne National Laboratory was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facilities, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Chemical Society.",

year = "2021",

month = apr,

day = "28",

doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

pages = "3633--3639",

journal = "Nano Letters",

issn = "1530-6984",

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Xiao, F, Liu, X, Sun, CJ, Hwang, I, Wang, Q, Xu, Z, Wang, Y, Zhu, S, Wu, HW, Wei, Z, Zheng, L, Cheng, D, Gu, M, Xu, GL, Amine, K & Shao, M 2021, 'Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells', Nano Letters, vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 3633-3639. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

TY - JOUR

T1 - Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

AU - Xiao, Fei

AU - Liu, Xiang

AU - Sun, Cheng Jun

AU - Hwang, Inhui

AU - Wang, Qi

AU - Xu, Zhiwen

AU - Wang, Yian

AU - Zhu, Shangqian

AU - Wu, Hsi Wen

AU - Wei, Zidong

AU - Zheng, Liping

AU - Cheng, Daojian

AU - Gu, Meng

AU - Xu, Gui Liang

AU - Amine, Khalil

AU - Shao, Minhua

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFB0102900), the Research Grant Council (N_HKUST610/17 and C6011-20GF) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Foshan-HKUST Project (FSUST19-FYTRI07) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee (SGDX2019081623340748). Research at Argonne National Laboratory was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facilities, was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 American Chemical Society.

PY - 2021/4/28

Y1 - 2021/4/28

N2 - Fe-N-C with atomically dispersed Fe single atoms is the most promising candidate to replace platinum for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. However, the conventional synthesis procedures require quantities solvents and metal precursors, sluggish adsorption process, and tedious washing, resulting in limited metal doping and uneconomical for large-scale production. For the first time, Fe2O3 is adopted as the Fe precursor to derive abundant single Fe atoms dispersed on carbon surfaces. The Fe-N-C catalyst synthesized by this simple method shows an excellent ORR activity with half-wave potentials of 0.82 and 0.90 V in acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively. A single fuel cell with an optimized Fe-N-C cathode shows a high peak power density of 0.84 W cm-2. The solid-state transformation synthesis method developed in this study may shed light on mass production of single-atom-based catalysts.

AB - Fe-N-C with atomically dispersed Fe single atoms is the most promising candidate to replace platinum for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells. However, the conventional synthesis procedures require quantities solvents and metal precursors, sluggish adsorption process, and tedious washing, resulting in limited metal doping and uneconomical for large-scale production. For the first time, Fe2O3 is adopted as the Fe precursor to derive abundant single Fe atoms dispersed on carbon surfaces. The Fe-N-C catalyst synthesized by this simple method shows an excellent ORR activity with half-wave potentials of 0.82 and 0.90 V in acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively. A single fuel cell with an optimized Fe-N-C cathode shows a high peak power density of 0.84 W cm-2. The solid-state transformation synthesis method developed in this study may shed light on mass production of single-atom-based catalysts.

KW - Metal organic framework

KW - proton exchange membrane fuel cell

KW - single-atom catalyst

KW - solid-state transformation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105116388&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00702

M3 - Article

C2 - 33872030

AN - SCOPUS:85105116388

SN - 1530-6984

VL - 21

SP - 3633

EP - 3639

JO - Nano Letters

JF - Nano Letters

IS - 8

ER -

Solid-State Synthesis of Highly Dispersed Nitrogen-Coordinated Single Iron Atom Electrocatalysts for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

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Keywords

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