Fe phthalocyanine stabilized on phosphorous-doped multi-defective carbon nanoribbons as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts

Coordination polymers can be utilized as ideal precursors due to their ability to change their growth behavior and topological structure through solvent-induced effects. In this work, nanostrip-like crystalline particles, transformed from interchangeable indium-based coordination polymers (InOF-25/26), are treated to synthesize phosphorus-doped multi-defective carbon nanoribbons for efficiently anchoring iron phthalocyanine. The obtained FePc-Fe2P@25-CNR electrocatalyst exhibits a superior half-wave potential of 0.899 V and a large diffusion current density of 5.152 mA cm−2 in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Meanwhile, it also shows excellent stability in homemade Zn-air batteries with satisfactory charge/discharge durability over 100 cycles. In this case, the ORR performance can be improved by phosphating the carbon surface, reinforcing tight bonding with transition metal phthalocyanines, and inducing charge migration to increase the electrocatalysis kinetics, which is further validated by relevant theoretical calculation. This synthetic strategy combines structurally variable coordination polymers with metallomacrocyclic molecules, exploiting a feasible pathway for the preparation of high-performance electrochemical catalysts.