ZnCl2 salt facilitated preparation of FeNC: Enhancing the content of active species and their exposure for highly-efficient oxygen reduction reaction

Introducing catalytically-active Fe and N into carbon materials results in promising FeNC catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. However, the doped Fe and N species are frequently subject to heavy loss in a traditional carbonization process owing to Fe agglomeration and evaporation of N-contained small molecules. Besides, pyrolysis may make materials sintering which embeds a large number of active sites in the bulk phase and impedes direct exposure of reactive centers to the reactants. We here report that when calcinations, the addition of ZnCl2, an ordinary salt with very wide melting temperature range well covering the carbonization process of the precursor iron porphyrin, can significantly enhance the doping level of the active species and simultaneously create highly porous structures for FeNC catalysts. The obtained FeNC demonstrates ultrahigh catalytic activities even significantly better than Pt/C in oxygen reduction reaction.