Highly dispersed Fe/Zn/Ce species on defect-rich carbon for enhanced oxygen reduction and zinc–air battery performance

Abstract

A defect-rich carbon catalyst with highly dispersed Fe/Zn/Ce species (FeZnCe–NC-1000) is synthesized via a controllable high-temperature pyrolysis strategy. Electrochemical characterization studies reveal that FeZnCe–NC-1000 exhibits enhanced oxygen reduction reaction activity in 0.1 M KOH, featuring favorable kinetics and a dominant 4-electron transfer pathway. It also shows excellent durability with minimal performance degradation after 5000 cycles and strong methanol tolerance. When integrated into zinc–air batteries, FeZnCe–NC-1000 outperforms commercial Pt/C, delivering superior open-circuit voltage, discharge rate performance, specific capacity, and maximum power density. These results demonstrate that FeZnCe–NC-1000 is a promising non-precious metal catalyst with great potential for practical applications in energy conversion and storage systems.