The design of single iron atoms dispersed with nitrogen coordination environment electrocatalyst for zinc -air battery

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is crucial to the development of fuel cell and metal-air battery. Metals with atomic-level dispersion has been considered as the effective nano-technologies to promote the activity and stability of catalysts for ORR. Herein, we designed Fe/N-doped porous carbon (Fe-NPC) as efficient ORR catalysts in both alkaline and acid electrolyte through a simplified one-pot method. The Fe species were atomically dispersed in the synthesized materials by FeN 4 C 10 moieties and exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance. Experimental and theoretical results showed that Fe–N 4 sites existed in Fe-NPC endowed it with high intrinsic catalytic activity for ORR. When utilized as air electrode catalyst in Zn-air battery, Fe-NPC material achieved a maximum power density (126.0 mW cm −2 ) and could operate steadily for over 11 h. This work presents a simplified strategy in the design and synthesis of sing-atom catalysts electrocatalysts with high activity and stability, paving the way for the mass production and mechanistic studies of catalysts in reality. • Single iron atoms dispersed electrocatalyst has been designed. • The FeN 4 C 10 moieties have been identified to be the catalytic sites. • The Zn-air battery performance of the catalyst has been measured.