General Carbon-Supporting Strategy to Boost the Oxygen Reduction Activity of Zeolitic-Imidazolate-Framework-Derived Fe/N/Carbon Catalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of the Fe/N/Carbon catalysts derived from the pyrolysis of zeolitic-imidazolate-framework-8 (ZIF-8) has been still lower than that of commercial Pt-based catalysts utilized in the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) due to low density of accessible active sites. In this study, an efficient carbon-supporting strategy is developed to enhance the ORR efficiency of the ZIF-derived Fe/N/Carbon catalysts by increasing the accessible active site density. The enhancement lies in (i) improving the accessibility of active sites via converting dodecahedral particles to graphene-like layered materials and (ii) enhancing the density of FeNx active sites via suppressing the formation of nanoparticles as well as providing extra spaces to host active sites. The optimized and efficient Fe/N/Carbon catalyst shows a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.834 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode in acidic media and produces a peak power density of 0.66 W cm–2 in an air-fed PEMFC at 2 bar backpressure, outperforming most previously reported Pt-free ORR catalysts. Finally, the general applicability of the carbon-supporting strategy is confirmed using five different commercial carbon blacks. This work provides an effective route to derive Fe/N/Carbon catalysts exhibiting a higher power density in PEMFCs.