Topological defect-containing Fe/N co-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets as novel electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction and Zn–air batteries

Abstract

Developing effective electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction is of great significance for clean and renewable energy technologies, such as metal–air batteries and fuel cells. Defect engineering is the central focus of this field because the overall catalytic performance crucially depends on highly active defects. For the ORR, topological defects have been proven to have a positive effect. However, because preparation and characterization of such defects are difficult, a basic understanding of the relationship between topological defects and catalytic performance remains elusive. In this study, topological defect-containing Fe/N co-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets were synthesized using azulene-based sandwich-like polymer nanosheets as the precursor. As electrocatalysts, such porous carbon nanosheets exhibited promising ORR activity, methanol tolerance ability, and stability with a half-wave potential of 841 mV under alkaline conditions, which is superior to those of most of the reported porous carbons. As the air cathode for Zn–air batteries, the catalyst exhibited a peak power density of 153 mW cm⁻² and a specific capacity of 628 mA h g⁻¹,which were higher than those of a Pt/C-based Zn–air battery. Density functional theory calculation further proved the positive effect of topological defects on the oxygen reduction activity. These results indicate that bottom-up topological defect engineering could be a new and promising strategy for developing high-performance electrocatalysts.