Journal Home > Volume 15 , Issue 3
Nano Research 2022, 15(3): 1803-1808 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3748-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 15 August 2021

Atomic CoN3S1 sites for boosting oxygen reduction reaction via an atomic exchange strategy

Show Author's Information Qianjun Zhi,  Rong Jiang,  Wenping Liu,  Tingting Sun,  Kang Wang( ),  Jianzhuang Jiang( )
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory for Science and Application of Functional Molecular and Crystalline Materials, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Keywords:
oxygen reduction reaction, zinc-air battery, atomic sites, CoN3S1
Topics:
Oxygen evolution reaction
Cite this article:
Zhi Q, Jiang R, Liu W, et al. Atomic CoN3S1 sites for boosting oxygen reduction reaction via an atomic exchange strategy. Nano Research, 2022, 15(3): 1803-1808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3748-6
Download citation
EndNote(RIS)
BibTeX

614

Views

51

Downloads

Citations

9

Crossref

8

WoS

8

Scopus

2

CSCD

Abstract Full text About this article

It is vitally important to develop high-efficiency low-cost catalysts to boost oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for renewable energy conversion. Herein, an A-CoN3S1@C electrocatalyst with atomic CoN3S1 active sites loaded on N, S-codoped porous carbon was produced by an atomic exchange strategy. The constructed A-CoN3S1@C electrocatalyst exhibits an unexpected half-wave potential (0.901 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode) with excellent durability for ORR under alkaline conditions (0.1 M KOH), superior to the commercial platinum carbon (20 wt.% Pt/C). The outstanding performance of A-CoN3S1@C in ORR is due to the positive effect of S atoms doping on optimizing the electron structure of the atomic CoN3S1 active sites. Moreover, the rechargeable zinc-air battery in which both A-CoN3S1@C and IrO2 were simultaneously served as cathode catalysts (A-CoN3S1@C &IrO 2) exhibits higher energy efficiency, larger power density, as well as better stability, compared to the commercial Pt/C&IrO2-based zinc-air battery. The present result should be helpful for developing lower cost and higher performance ORR catalysts which is expected to be used in practical applications in energy devices.


menu
Abstract
Full text
Outline
About this article

Atomic CoN3S1 sites for boosting oxygen reduction reaction via an atomic exchange strategy

Show Author's information Qianjun Zhi, Rong Jiang, Wenping Liu, Tingting Sun, Kang Wang( ), Jianzhuang Jiang( )
Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Materials Genome Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory for Science and Application of Functional Molecular and Crystalline Materials, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

Abstract

It is vitally important to develop high-efficiency low-cost catalysts to boost oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for renewable energy conversion. Herein, an A-CoN3S1@C electrocatalyst with atomic CoN3S1 active sites loaded on N, S-codoped porous carbon was produced by an atomic exchange strategy. The constructed A-CoN3S1@C electrocatalyst exhibits an unexpected half-wave potential (0.901 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode) with excellent durability for ORR under alkaline conditions (0.1 M KOH), superior to the commercial platinum carbon (20 wt.% Pt/C). The outstanding performance of A-CoN3S1@C in ORR is due to the positive effect of S atoms doping on optimizing the electron structure of the atomic CoN3S1 active sites. Moreover, the rechargeable zinc-air battery in which both A-CoN3S1@C and IrO2 were simultaneously served as cathode catalysts (A-CoN3S1@C &IrO 2) exhibits higher energy efficiency, larger power density, as well as better stability, compared to the commercial Pt/C&IrO2-based zinc-air battery. The present result should be helpful for developing lower cost and higher performance ORR catalysts which is expected to be used in practical applications in energy devices.

Keywords: oxygen reduction reaction, zinc-air battery, atomic sites, CoN3S1

References(34)

1

Chu, S.; Majumdar, A. Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future. Nature 2012, 488, 294–303.
DOI Google Scholar
2

Kulkarni, A.; Siahrostami, S.; Patel, A.; Nørskov, J. K. Understanding catalytic activity trends in the oxygen reduction reaction. Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 2302–2312.
DOI Google Scholar
3

Liu, J.; Jiao, M. G.; Lu, L. L.; Barkholtz, H. M.; Li, Y. P.; Wang, Y.; Jiang, L. H.; Wu, Z. J.; Liu, D. J.; Zhuang, L. et al. High performance platinum single atom electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction. Nat. Commun. 2017, 8, 15938.
DOI Google Scholar
4

Liu, J.; Jiao, M. G.; Mei, B. B.; Tong, Y. X.; Li, Y. P.; Ruan, M. B.; Song, P.; Sun, G. Q.; Jiang, L. H.; Wang, Y. et al. Carbon-supported divacancy-anchored platinum single-atom electrocatalysts with superhigh Pt utilization for the oxygen reduction reaction. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 1163–1167.
DOI Google Scholar
5

Zhao, Z. P.; Chen, C. L.; Liu, Z. Y.; Huang, J.; Wu, M. H.; Liu, H. T.; Li, Y. J.; Huang, Y. Pt-based nanocrystal for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1808115.
DOI Google Scholar
6

Zhao, Z. H.; Li, M. T.; Zhang, L. P.; Dai, L. M.; Xia, Z. H. Design principles for heteroatom-doped carbon nanomaterials as highly efficient catalysts for fuel cells and metal–air batteries. Adv. Mater. 2015, 27, 6834–6840.
DOI Google Scholar
7

Worku, A. K.; Ayele, D. W.; Habtu, N. G. Recent advances and future perspectives in engineering of bifunctional electrocatalysts for rechargeable zinc–air batteries. Mater. Today Adv. 2021, 9, 100116.
DOI Google Scholar
8

Wang, J.; Kong, H.; Zhang, J. Y.; Hao, Y.; Shao, Z. P.; Ciucci, F. Carbon-based electrocatalysts for sustainable energy applications. Prog. Mater. Sci. 2021, 116, 100717.
DOI Google Scholar
9

Petrie, J. R.; Cooper, V. R.; Freeland, J. W.; Meyer, T. L.; Zhang, Z. Y.; Lutterman, D. A.; Lee, H. N. Enhanced bifunctional oxygen catalysis in strained LaNiO3 perovskites. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 2488–2491.
DOI Google Scholar
10

Wei, Y. C.; Weng, Z.; Guo, L. C.; An, L.; Yin, J.; Sun, S. Y.; Da, P. F.; Wang, R.; Xi, P. X.; Yan, C. H. Activation strategies of perovskite-type structure for applications in oxygen-related electrocatalysts. Small Methods 2021, 5, 2100012.
DOI Google Scholar
11

Zhou, T. P.; Xu, W. F.; Zhang, N.; Du, Z. Y.; Zhong, C. A.; Yan, W. S.; Ju, H. X.; Chu, W. S.; Jiang, H.; Wu, C. Z. et al. Ultrathin cobalt oxide layers as electrocatalysts for high-performance flexible Zn–air batteries. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1807468.
DOI Google Scholar
12

Tan, Y. Y.; Zhu, W. B.; Zhang, Z. Y.; Wu, W.; Chen, R. Z.; Mu, S. C.; Lv, H. F.; Cheng, N. C. Electronic tuning of confined sub-nanometer cobalt oxide clusters boosting oxygen catalysis and rechargeable Zn–air batteries. Nano Energy 2021, 83, 105813.
DOI Google Scholar
13

Jiang, R.; Chen, X.; Deng, J. X.; Wang, T. Y.; Wang, K.; Chen, Y. L.; Jiang, J. Z. In-situ growth of ZnS/FeS heterojunctions on biomass-derived porous carbon for efficient oxygen reduction reaction. J. Energy Chem. 2020, 47, 79–85.
DOI Google Scholar
14

Shang, H. S.; Sun, W. M.; Sui, R.; Pei, J. J.; Zheng, L. R.; Dong, J. C.; Jiang, Z. L.; Zhou, D. N.; Zhuang, Z. B.; Chen, W. X. et al. Engineering isolated Mn–N2C2 atomic interface sites for efficient bifunctional oxygen reduction and evolution reaction. Nano Lett. 2020, 20, 5443–5450.
DOI Google Scholar
15

Wang, H.; Li, J. M.; Li, K.; Lin, Y. P.; Chen, J. M.; Gao, L. J.; Nicolosi, V.; Xiao, X.; Lee, J. M. Transition metal nitrides for electrochemical energy applications. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 1354–1390.
DOI Google Scholar
16

Wu, W. J.; Liu, Y.; Liu, D.; Chen, W. X.; Song, Z. Y.; Wang, X. M.; Zheng, Y. M.; Lu, N.; Wang, C. X.; Mao, J. J. et al. Single copper sites dispersed on hierarchically porous carbon for improving oxygen reduction reaction towards zinc-air battery. Nano Res. 2021, 14, 998–1003.
DOI Google Scholar
17

Tang, C.; Wang, B.; Wang, H. F.; Zhang, Q. Defect engineering toward atomic Co–Nx–C in hierarchical graphene for rechargeable flexible solid Zn-air batteries. Adv. Mater. 2017, 29, 1703185.
DOI Google Scholar
18

Liu, J.; Zhang, H.; Qiu, M.; Peng, Z. H.; Leung, M. K. H.; Lin, W. F.; Xuan, J. A review of non-precious metal single atom confined nanomaterials in different structural dimensions (1D–3D) as highly active oxygen redox reaction electrocatalysts. J. Mater. Chem. A 2020, 8, 2222–2245.
DOI Google Scholar
19

Wei, X.; Zheng, D.; Zhao, M.; Chen, H. Z.; Fan, X.; Gao, B.; Gu, L.; Guo, Y.; Qin, J. B.; Wei, J. et al. Cross-linked polyphosphazene hollow nanosphere-derived N/P-doped porous carbon with single nonprecious metal atoms for the oxygen reduction reaction. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2020, 59, 14639–14646.
DOI Google Scholar
20

Sun, T. T.; Zhang, P. P.; Chen, W. X.; Wang, K.; Fu, X. Z.; Zheng, T. Y.; Jiang, J. Z. Single iron atoms coordinated to g-C3N4 on hierarchical porous N-doped carbon polyhedra as a high-performance electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction. Chem. Commun. 2020, 56, 798–801.
DOI Google Scholar
21

Zhang, X. B.; Han, X.; Jiang, Z.; Xu, J.; Chen, L. N.; Xue, Y. K.; Nie, A. M.; Xie, Z. X.; Kuang, Q.; Zheng, L. S. Atomically dispersed hierarchically ordered porous Fe–N–C electrocatalyst for high performance electrocatalytic oxygen reduction in Zn-air battery. Nano Energy 2020, 71, 104547.
DOI Google Scholar
22

Zhang, N.; Zhou, T. P.; Chen, M. L.; Feng, H.; Yuan, R. L.; Zhong, C. A.; Yan, W. S.; Tian, Y. C.; Wu, X. J.; Chu, W. S. et al. High-purity pyrrole-type FeN4 sites as a superior oxygen reduction electrocatalyst. Energy Environ. Sci. 2020, 13, 111–118.
DOI Google Scholar
23

Martinez, U.; Babu, S. K.; Holby, E. F.; Chung, H. T.; Yin, X.; Zelenay, P. Progress in the development of Fe-based PGM-free electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. Adv. Mater. 2019, 31, 1806545.
DOI Google Scholar
24

Zhao, S. Y.; Chen, G. X.; Zhou, G. M.; Yin, L. C.; Veder, J. P.; Johannessen, B.; Saunders, M.; Yang, S. Z.; De Marco, R.; Liu, C. et al. A universal seeding strategy to synthesize single atom catalysts on 2D materials for electrocatalytic applications. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2020, 30, 1906157.
DOI Google Scholar
25

Li, X. Y.; Rong, H. P.; Zhang, J. T.; Wang, D. S.; Li, Y. D. Modulating the local coordination environment of single-atom catalysts for enhanced catalytic performance. Nano Res. 2020, 13, 1842–1855.
DOI Google Scholar
26

Zheng, X. B.; Li, P.; Dou, S. X.; Sun, W. P.; Pan, H. G.; Wang, D. S.; Li, Y. D. Non-carbon-supported single-atom site catalysts for electrocatalysis. Energy Environ. Sci. 2021, 14, 2809–2858.
DOI Google Scholar
27

Zhang, J. Q.; Zhao, Y. F.; Chen, C.; Huang, Y. C.; Dong, C. L.; Chen, C. J.; Liu, R. S.; Wang, C. Y.; Yan, K.; Li, Y. D. et al. Tuning the coordination environment in single-atom catalysts to achieve highly efficient oxygen reduction reactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 20118–20126.
DOI Google Scholar
28

Shang, H. S.; Zhou, X. Y.; Dong, J. C.; Li, A.; Zhao, X.; Liu, Q. H.; Lin, Y.; Pei, J. J.; Li, Z.; Jiang, Z. L. et al. Engineering unsymmetrically coordinated Cu-S1N3 single atom sites with enhanced oxygen reduction activity. Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 3049.
DOI Google Scholar
29

Zhang, J. T.; Zhang, M.; Zeng, Y.; Chen, J. S.; Qiu, L. X.; Zhou, H.; Sun, C. J.; Yu, Y.; Zhu, C. Z.; Zhu, Z. H. Single Fe atom on hierarchically porous S, N-codoped nanocarbon derived from porphyra enable boosted oxygen catalysis for rechargeable Zn-air batteries. Small 2019, 15, 1900307.
DOI Google Scholar
30

Wang, Y.; Chen, L. H.; Mao, Z. X.; Peng, L. S.; Xiang, R.; Tang, X. Y.; Deng, J. H.; Wei, Z. D.; Liao, Q. Controlled synthesis of single cobalt atom catalysts via a facile one-pot pyrolysis for efficient oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions. Sci. Bull. 2019, 64, 1095–1102.
DOI Google Scholar
31

Xia, B. Y.; Yan, Y.; Li, N.; Wu, H. B.; Lou, X. W.; Wang, X. A metal–organic framework-derived bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst. Nat. Energy 2016, 1, 15006.
DOI Google Scholar
32

Chen, Y. J.; Gao, R.; Ji, S. F.; Li, H. J.; Tang, K.; Jiang, P.; Hu, H. B.; Zhang, Z. D.; Hao, H. G.; Qu, Q. Y. et al. Atomic-level modulation of electronic density at cobalt single-atom sites derived from metal-organic frameworks: Enhanced oxygen reduction performance. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 3212–3221.
DOI Google Scholar
33

Yang, J. R.; Li, W. H.; Wang, D. S.; Li, Y. D. Electronic metal–support interaction of single-atom catalysts and applications in electrocatalysis. Adv. Mater. 2020, 32, 2003300.
DOI Google Scholar
34

Liu, W. P.; Hou, Y. X.; Pan, H. H.; Liu, W. B.; Qi, D. D.; Wang, K.; Jiang, J. Z.; Yao, X. D. An ethynyl-linked Fe/Co heterometallic phthalocyanine conjugated polymer for the oxygen reduction reaction. J. Mater. Chem. A 2018, 6, 8349–8357.
DOI Google Scholar
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 June 2021
Revised: 12 July 2021
Accepted: 14 July 2021
Published: 15 August 2021
Issue date: March 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21631003 and 21871024), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. FRF-BR-19-003B and FRF-BD-20-14A).

Return