Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2023, Vol. 54: 56-87.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(23)64538-3

• Reviews • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Rational design of Fe-M-N-C based dual-atom catalysts for oxygen reduction electrocatalysis

Zhechen Fana, Hao Wana, Hao Yua, Junjie Gea,b,*()   

  1. aSchool of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China
    bDalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China
  • Received:2023-06-28 Accepted:2023-10-08 Online:2023-11-18 Published:2023-11-15
  • Contact: *E-mail: gejunjie@ustc.edu.cn (J. Ge).
  • About author:Junjie Ge received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2010. She worked at University of South Carolina and University of Hawaii as a postdoc fellow for almost 5 years. She joined Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry in 2015 as a professor and then joined University of Science and Technology of China in 2022 as a professor. Her research interests comprehend fuel cells, nanoscience, catalysis, and electrochemistry. She has published 100+ peer-reviewed papers on the highly reputable international journals including Nat. Sci. Rev., Joule, Chem, PNAS, J. Am. Chem. Soc., Nat. Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Sci. Bull., Energy Environ. Sci., with several of them are ranked as highly cited papers. She serves actively as a referee for journals in ACS, Wiley, RSC, Science Direct, and several Chinese journals.
  • Supported by:
    National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFB4004100);National Natural Science Foundation of China(U22A20396);Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province(2208085UD04);Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science & Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences(KLLCCSE-202202);Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy(DNL)CAS, the Research Innovation Fund(DNL202010)

Abstract:

Fe-N-C based single-atom catalysts (SACs) with isolated Fe atoms dispersed on nitrogen-doped carbon matrix have achieved sustained attention for oxygen reduction reaction due to their great potential in replacing the Pt based noble catalysts in terms of catalytic activity. To further trigger the intrinsic activity of Fe-N-C, Fe based dual-atom catalysts (DACs, i.e., Fe-M-N-C) have been intensively studied, which confer the catalysts with readily tunable geometric configurations, electronic structures, thereby tailored catalytic properties. In this review, current progress on the rational design of Fe-M-N-C based DACs for enhanced oxygen reduction catalysis is summarized. Firstly, the ORR mechanisms on DACs are discussed where the second metal atoms can function through synergistic effect and/or modulation effect to promote the intrinsic catalytic activity. Moreover, the currently available synthetic approaches, characterization techniques and computational methods are systematically reviewed to aid the investigation of DACs. Then, DACs are classified into marriage-type and conjunct-type based on the interaction between metal atoms, whose properties are discussed at length with the atomic configuration. At last, the main challenges of Fe-M-N-C based DACs are summarized and some appealing directions towards highly efficient and stable energy applications are provided for their further enhancement.

Key words: Oxygen reduction reaction, Fe based catalyst, Dual-atom catalyst, Catalytic activity, Atomic configuration