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Engineering the electronic structure of atomically dispersed p-block bismuth sites via multi-shells tuning effect for boosting oxygen reduction reaction
Nano Research 2025, 18(8): 94907591
Published: 18 July 2025
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Main-group metal (s- and p-block) single atom catalysts (SACs), in which metal cations stabilized by nitrogen atoms (metal-Nx moieties), have emerged as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR). However, the closed d shells over main-group metals-based catalysts hinder design of more efficient catalysts than state-of-the-art non-precious Fe single atom catalysts (Fe1/NC). Here we report a p-block Bi-based single-atom electrocatalyst with electronic structure controlled by multi-shell that exhibits high catalytic performance for ORR in alkaline media. Our data suggest the catalyst is composed of single Bi atoms coordinated with four nitrogen atoms on sulfur-phosphorus co-doped carbon nanocages (BiN4/PSNC). The catalyst gives a high half-wave potential of 0.94 V for 4 e ORR and performs negligible attenuation after 10,000 cycles. In addition, the Zn-air battery assembled by BiN4/PSNC achieves a remarkable peak power density of 452.8 mW·cm−2, exceeding other reported main-group metal SACs and most d-band metal SACs. A range of analytical techniques combined with density functional theory calculations reveal that the introduction of S and P sites induces significant electronic modulations to the BiN4 active sites, P and S doping promote the electrical activity of BiN4 and improve the overall intersite electron transfer within BiN4/PSNC optimizing the adsorption energy of the oxygen intermediates. The 4e ORR activity was improved. This work offers a unique pathway in designing main-group metals-based SACs for energy conversion devices.

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