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Fabrication of Fe3C nanoparticles encapsulated in undoped graphite carbon and their catalysis for oxygen reduction

无掺杂石墨碳封装Fe3C纳米颗粒的制备及其氧还原性能

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Abstract

In recent years, nitrogenous metallic-complex catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) have been extensively reported, but the exact role of Fe3C in the catalytic process is not clear due to the interference of reactive sites such as FexN, NxC and Fe nanoparticles. In this work, a new type of pyrolysis catalyst Fe3C-core/C-shell (Fe3C/C) was designed using Fe2O3 nanospheres and bacterial cellulose (BC) as raw materials. The encased nitrogen-free carbide isolated from the electrolyte, promoting the graphitic layers to form after BC carbonization toward high ORR catalytic activity, and the graphitic layers protected the internal carbide which exhibited excellent ORR activity and stability in both acidic and alkaline media. The catalyst was a model system for understanding the ORR active site of such encapsulated catalysts without other element doping. The carbide-based catalyst and mechanism proposed in this work provided a new idea for the development of ORR catalyst.

摘要

近年来,含氮金属碳化物氧还原反应(ORR)催化剂被广泛报道,但受到FexN、NxC和Fe 纳米颗 粒等多种反应活性位点的干扰,Fe3C在催化过程中的具体作用尚不清楚。本文以Fe2O3纳米微球和细菌 纤维素(BC)为原料,经热解得到了一种Fe3C/C 核壳催化剂。虽然被封装的无氮Fe3C颗粒不接触电解 液,但BC碳化后形成石墨层的ORR催化活性得到大幅提升。石墨层保护了内部碳化物,使其在酸性 和碱性电解液中均表现出良好的催化活性和稳定性。该催化剂可作为理解此类无杂元素封装型催化剂 ORR活性位点的模型系统。本文提出的碳化物催化剂及其作用机理为ORR催化剂的开发提供了新的 思路。

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213164, China

    Xin-hao Yu  (于鑫浩) & Jing Hu  (胡静)

  2. College of Advanced Materials Engineering, Jiaxing Nanhu University, Jiaxing, 314001, China

    Jun Wu  (武军)

  3. School of Materials and Textile Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001, China

    Xin-hao Yu  (于鑫浩), Jin-yuan Yu  (于巾媛), De-qiang Wang  (王德强), Jia-yi He  (何佳艺) & Li Gu  (谷俐)

  4. School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001, China

    Xue-bo Cao  (曹雪波)

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  1. Xin-hao Yu  (于鑫浩)
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  2. Jun Wu  (武军)
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  3. Jin-yuan Yu  (于巾媛)
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  7. Li Gu  (谷俐)
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  8. Xue-bo Cao  (曹雪波)
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Contributions

WU Jun, GU Li and HU Jing conceived and designed the study. YU Xin-hao performed the experiments. YU Jin-yuan, WANG De-qiang and HE Jia-yi conducted experiments and data analysis. WU Jun edited the draft of manuscript. GU Li, CAO Xue-bo and HU Jing reviewed the whole manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Wu  (武军), Jing Hu  (胡静) or Li Gu  (谷俐).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Foundation item: Project(2020AD10010) supported by the Public Welfare Research Project of Jiaxing city, China; Project(LQ19B030005) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China

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Yu, Xh., Wu, J., Yu, Jy. et al. Fabrication of Fe3C nanoparticles encapsulated in undoped graphite carbon and their catalysis for oxygen reduction. J. Cent. South Univ. 30, 35–48 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-023-5227-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-023-5227-6

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