High-performance atomic Co/N co-doped porous carbon catalysts derived from Co-doped metal-organic frameworks for oxygen reduction

Diancheng Duan; Shixi Zhong; Junlang Huo; Jiaxiang Chen; Xiudong Shi; Hongliang Peng; Xiuhua Li; Shijun Liao

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.102

High-performance atomic Co/N co-doped porous carbon catalysts derived from Co-doped metal-organic frameworks for oxygen reduction

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Mar 15:634:940-948. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.102. Epub 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Diancheng Duan¹, Shixi Zhong¹, Junlang Huo¹, Jiaxiang Chen¹, Xiudong Shi¹, Hongliang Peng², Xiuhua Li¹, Shijun Liao³

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory of Fuel Cell Technology of Guangdong Province & The Key Laboratory of New Energy, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, PR China.
³ The Key Laboratory of Fuel Cell Technology of Guangdong Province & The Key Laboratory of New Energy, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China. Electronic address: chsjliao@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 36571856
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.12.102

Abstract

Improving the activity and durability of carbon-based catalysts is a key challenge for their application in fuel cells. Herein, we report a highly active and durable Co/N co-doped carbon (CoNC) catalyst prepared via pyrolysis of Co-doped zeolitic-imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), which was synthesized by controlling the feeding sequence to enable Co to replace Zn in the metal-organic framework (MOF). The catalyst exhibited excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance, while the half-wave potential decreased by only 8 mV after 5,000 accelerated stress test (AST) cycles in an acidic solution. Furthermore, the catalyst exhibited satisfactory cathodic catalytic performance when utilized in a hydrogen/oxygen single proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and a Zn-air battery, yielding maximum power densities of 530 and 164 mW cm^-2, respectively. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and high-angle annular dark field-scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAAD-STEM) analyses revealed that Co was present in the catalyst as single atoms coordinated with N to form Co-N moieties, which results in the high catalytic performance. These results show that the reported catalyst is a promising material for inclusion into future fuel cell designs.

Keywords: Co single atoms; Doped carbon catalyst; Fuel cells; Oxygen reduction; Zinc–air battery.