Space-Confined Anchoring of Fe−Nx on Concave N-Doped Carbon Cubes for Catalyzing Oxygen Reduction

Graphical There's no space : Highly dispersed Fe−N x anchored on concave N-doped carbon is synthesized by space-confined strategy. The resulting NC@Fe−N−C exhibits superior oxygen reduction activity, originating from the combination of intrinsic activity and acceleration of mass electron transfer. Carbon-based electrocatalysts with atomically dispersed Fe−N−C display promising performance for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) amongst non-precious electrocatalysts. Nonetheless, increasing the number and utilization of Fe−N−C active sites is challenging. Designing morphologies and adjusting the pore structure of carbon-based electrocatalysts would boost the mass transfer, enhance the utilization of the active sites, and increase the overall ORR performance. In this work, a concave N-doped carbon cubes structure adorned with highly external Fe−N x was designed and produced by the space-confined induced strategy. The optimal electrocatalyst revealed excellent ORR activity in both alkaline and acidic electrolytes, with half-wave potentials of 0.86 and 0.75 V, respectively. The superior performance arose from its unique concave structure, possessing more accessible active sites with improved intrinsic activity, which holds promising potential for preparing advanced ORR electrocatalysts.