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Nano Research 2023, 16(5): 6531-6536 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5314-2
Research Article | Issue | Published: 23 December 2022

Phosphorus induced activity-enhancement of Fe-N-C catalysts for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Show Author's Information Xiangrong Jin1,§,  Yajie Li1,§,  Hao Sun1,  Xiangxiang Gao1,  Jiazhan Li2( ),  Zhi Lü1( ),  Wen Liu1( ),  Xiaoming Sun1( )
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Engineering Research Center of Advanced Rare Earth Materials, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

§ Xiangrong Jin and Yajie Li contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
heteroatomic doping, iron nitrogen carbon, phosphorous tolerance, high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
Topics:
Electrocatalysis
Cite this article:
Jin X, Li Y, Sun H, et al. Phosphorus induced activity-enhancement of Fe-N-C catalysts for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Nano Research, 2023, 16(5): 6531-6536. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5314-2
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Fe-N-C materials with atomically dispersed Fe–N4 sites could tolerate the poisoning of phosphate, and is regarded as the most promising alternative to costly Pt-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs). However, they still face the critical issue of insufficient activity in phosphoric acid. Herein, we demonstrate a P-doping strategy to increase the activity of Fe-N-C catalyst via a feasible one-pot method. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and electron microscopy with atomic resolution indicated that the P atom is bonded with the N in Fe–N4 site through C atoms. The as prepared Fe-NCP catalyst shows a half-wave potential of 0.75 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), 0.1 M H3PO4), which is 60 and 40 mV higher than that of Fe-NC and commercial Pt/C catalysts, respectively. More importantly, the Fe-NCP catalyst could deliver a peak power density of 357 mW·cm−2 in a high temperature fuel cell (160 °C), exceeding the non-noble-metal catalysts ever reported. The enhancement of activity is attributed to the increasing charge density and poisoning tolerance of Fe–N4 caused by neighboring P. This work not only promotes the practical application of Fe-N-C materials in HT-PEMFCs, but also provides a feasible P-doping method for regulating the structure of single atom site.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Phosphorus induced activity-enhancement of Fe-N-C catalysts for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Show Author's information Xiangrong Jin1,§, Yajie Li1,§, Hao Sun1, Xiangxiang Gao1, Jiazhan Li2( ), Zhi Lü1( ), Wen Liu1( ), Xiaoming Sun1( )
State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
Engineering Research Center of Advanced Rare Earth Materials, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

§ Xiangrong Jin and Yajie Li contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Fe-N-C materials with atomically dispersed Fe–N4 sites could tolerate the poisoning of phosphate, and is regarded as the most promising alternative to costly Pt-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs). However, they still face the critical issue of insufficient activity in phosphoric acid. Herein, we demonstrate a P-doping strategy to increase the activity of Fe-N-C catalyst via a feasible one-pot method. X-ray absorption spectroscopy and electron microscopy with atomic resolution indicated that the P atom is bonded with the N in Fe–N4 site through C atoms. The as prepared Fe-NCP catalyst shows a half-wave potential of 0.75 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), 0.1 M H3PO4), which is 60 and 40 mV higher than that of Fe-NC and commercial Pt/C catalysts, respectively. More importantly, the Fe-NCP catalyst could deliver a peak power density of 357 mW·cm−2 in a high temperature fuel cell (160 °C), exceeding the non-noble-metal catalysts ever reported. The enhancement of activity is attributed to the increasing charge density and poisoning tolerance of Fe–N4 caused by neighboring P. This work not only promotes the practical application of Fe-N-C materials in HT-PEMFCs, but also provides a feasible P-doping method for regulating the structure of single atom site.

Keywords: heteroatomic doping, iron nitrogen carbon, phosphorous tolerance, high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 25 October 2022
Revised: 11 November 2022
Accepted: 12 November 2022
Published: 23 December 2022
Issue date: May 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFA0702002), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. Z210016), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21935001)

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