Solid-state stepwise temperature-programmable synthesis of bioinspired Fe-N-C oxygen reduction electrocatalyst featuring Fe-N<inf>5</inf> configuration
Issued Date
2025-03-01
Resource Type
ISSN
19980124
eISSN
19980000
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105000625523
Journal Title
Nano Research
Volume
18
Issue
3
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Nano Research Vol.18 No.3 (2025)
Suggested Citation
Sang W., Chaemchuen S., Zhang L., Wang Z., Li X., Nagasaka C.A., Xiong M., Ogiwara N., Chen C., Wang Z., Zhang J., Verpoort F., Mu S., Kou Z., Wang T. Solid-state stepwise temperature-programmable synthesis of bioinspired Fe-N-C oxygen reduction electrocatalyst featuring Fe-N<inf>5</inf> configuration. Nano Research Vol.18 No.3 (2025). doi:10.26599/NR.2025.94907245 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/108561
Title
Solid-state stepwise temperature-programmable synthesis of bioinspired Fe-N-C oxygen reduction electrocatalyst featuring Fe-N<inf>5</inf> configuration
Author's Affiliation
Corresponding Author(s)
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
The bioinspired Fe-N-C features an asymmetric Fe-N5 configuration to produce active metal-oxygen intermediates by introducing axial N ligand into a symmetric Fe-N4 structure, enabling highly active oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the artificial creation of active Fe-N5 configuration with a direct, facile and green method has been rarely developed yet, as current techniques involve complex processes and costly precursors. Herein, we advance a novel solid-state stepwise temperature-programmable (SST) route to directly produce bioinspired Fe-N5-C. We then demonstrate that such a Fe-N5-C exhibits a quite higher half-wave potential (0.92 V) with 22-fold faster ORR kinetics (15.6 mA·cm−2 @ 0.85 V) over that of the commercial Pt/C counterpart. Indeed, we perform density functional theory (DFT) to find that the Fe is discharged with an extra 0.1 e− through the axially coordinate N ligand, which significantly enhances the ability to activate O2 and enables an easier desorption of the crucial intermediate *OH on the Fe-N5 configuration over the conventional Fe-N4 structure.