Fe/N/C carbon nanotubes with high nitrogen content as effective non-precious catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline medium

Abstract The non-precious metal catalysts usually have low nitrogen content, resulting in poor oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance. Herein we demonstrated a strategy to synthesize the Fe/N/C carbon nanotubes (Fe–N–BCNTs) with high nitrogen content. The strategy included pyrolysis of ferric chloride and dicyandiamide, polymerization of pyrrole onto intermediate product's surface, and following by calcination in N 2 atmosphere. Electrochemical test results show that the catalyst exhibits highly efficient ORR activity with an onset potential of 0.995 V ( vs reversible hydrogen electrode) in 0.1 M KOH solution, 30 mV more positive than that of 20 wt. % Pt/C catalyst. The excellent ORR performances could be attributed to the more nitrogen functional groups in Fe–N–BCNTs-PPy-800 catalyst, which is revealed by Raman and XPS. Moreover, the prepared catalyst exhibits better methanol tolerance and higher stability in comparison to commercial Pt/C catalyst.