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Oxygen Reduction Reactions of Fe-N-C Catalysts: Current Status and the Way Forward

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Abstract

Currently, Fe-N-C materials are considered to be among the most important oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts, because they are potential substitutes for Pt-based catalysts and are therefore promising in the development of non-noble metal-based catalysts. However, challenges such as electron transfer kinetics still exist and need to be improved upon. From a chemical stand point, improvements can be made through the better understanding of mechanisms in Fe-N-C-based ORR catalysis along with a deeper understanding of the chemical origin of active sites on Fe-N-C catalyst surfaces. Based on these, this comprehensive review will focus on the energy conversion, transformation kinetics and electron transfer of the ORR process as catalyzed by Fe-N-C catalysts. And by taking these and other relevant analytical results for Fe-N-C materials into consideration, primary strategies in the improvement in Fe-N-C catalyst activity will be presented.

Graphical Abstract

As the promising Pt substrate for oxygen reduction catalysis, the Fe-N-C materials are active toward the four-electron reduction of O2 to H2O. This review focuses on the profound understanding of heterogeneous oxygen reduction reaction on Fe-N-C materials from the following aspects: (1) thermodynamics of energy conversion in ORR processes, (2) kinetics of ORR processes based on Fe-N-C catalysts, (3) the textural features of Fe-N-C and analytic results known as far, (4) fundamental principle for Fe-N-C materials synthesis and (5) practical application for fuel cell and metal–air batteries.

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Fig. 1

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [3]; Copyright 2004 American Chemical Society. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [11]; Copyright 2012 Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Fig. 2
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Fig. 5

(Part a, b and c adapted with permission from Ref. [35]; Copyright 2013 American Chemical Society.)

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Fig. 7

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [47]; Copyright 2009 American Chemical Society. Part b, c and d adapted with permission from Ref. [50]; Copyright 2018 John Wiley and Sons.)

Fig. 8

(Part a, b, c, d, e and f adapted with permission from Ref. [60]; Copyright 2016 American Chemical Society.)

Fig. 9

(Part a, b and c adapted with permission from Ref. [14]; Copyright 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Part d, e and f adapted with permission from Ref. [67]; Copyright 2016 John Wiley and Sons.)

Fig. 10

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [48]; Copyright 2017 Elsevier. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [72]; Copyright 2016 American Chemical Society. Parts c and d adapted with permission from Ref. [39]; Copyright 2016 Nature Publishing Group.)

Fig. 11

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [37]; Copyright 2018 Nature Publishing Group. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [80]; Copyright 2017 American Chemical Society. Parts c and d adapted with permission from Ref. [48]; Copyright 2017 Elsevier.)

Fig. 12

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [48]; Copyright 2017 Elsevier. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [41]; Copyright 2014 American Chemical Society. Part c adapted with permission from Ref. [6]; Copyright 2016 American Chemical Society. Part d adapted with permission from Ref. [104]; Copyright 2015 American Chemical Society.)

Fig. 13

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [115]; Copyright 2016 John Wiley and Sons. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [116]; Copyright 2017 American Chemical Society. Part c adapted with permission from Ref. [76]; Copyright 2017 American Chemical Society. Part d adapted with permission from Ref. [56]; Copyright 2017 John Wiley and Sons.)

Fig. 14

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [57]; Copyright 2017 John Wiley and Sons. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [126]; Copyright 2018 Royal Society of Chemistry. Part c adapted with permission from Ref. [73]; Copyright 2017 John Wiley and Sons.)

Fig. 15

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [128]; Copyright 2014 John Wiley and Sons. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [65]; Copyright 2017 John Wiley and Sons.)

Fig. 16

(Part a adapted with permission from Ref. [144]. Part b adapted with permission from Ref. [107]; Copyright 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Part c adapted with permission from Ref. [145]; Copyright 2018 John Wiley and Sons. Part d adapted with permission from Ref. [146]; Copyright 2011 Nature Publishing Group.)

Fig. 17

(Parts a and b adapted with permission from Ref. [152]; Copyright 2018 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Parts c and d adapted with permission from Ref. [161]; Copyright 2018 Elsevier. Part e adapted with permission from Ref. [94]; Copyright 2018 American Chemical Society. Part f adapted with permission from Ref. [162]; Copyright 2018 Royal Society of Chemistry.)

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21471147) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0101200). M. Yang appreciates the support from the Ningbo 3315 program. J. Wang would like to thank the financial support from the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (15520720400, 16DZ2260603) and the Equipment Research Program (6140721050215). Tiju Thomas would like to thank the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and the Department of Science and Technology (DST, Government of India) for their financial support in the form of grants such as the Young Scientist Scheme (YSS/2015/001712) and the Centre Grant CHY1718383DSTXTPRA and SOL1819001DSTXHOCX. Tiju Thomas would also like to thank the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology for their support and the Centre grant ELE1819353MEITENAK (in which he is a Center member). H. Shen would like to acknowledge the contributions made by Liu Yang at the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

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  1. Solid State Functional Materials Research Laboratory, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China

    Hangjia Shen, Sefiu Abolaji Rasaki, Ali Saad & Minghui Yang

  2. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600036, India

    Tiju Thomas

  3. State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Chun Hu & Jiacheng Wang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China

    Sefiu Abolaji Rasaki & Chun Hu

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  1. Hangjia Shen
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Shen, H., Thomas, T., Rasaki, S.A. et al. Oxygen Reduction Reactions of Fe-N-C Catalysts: Current Status and the Way Forward. Electrochem. Energ. Rev. 2, 252–276 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41918-019-00030-w

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