Hydrophobicity Engineering of Hierarchically Ordered SiO2/Fe-N-C Catalyst with Optimized Triple-Phase Boundary for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction | Sciact - CRIS-system of Boreskov Institute of Catalysis

Hydrophobicity Engineering of Hierarchically Ordered SiO2/Fe-N-C Catalyst with Optimized Triple-Phase Boundary for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction Full article

Journal

Nano Research Energy
ISSN: 2791-0091

Output data

Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Number: 3, Article number : e9120180, Pages count : 12 DOI: 10.26599/nre.2025.9120180

Tags

Fe-Nx site; a space-confinement strategy; oxygen reduction reaction (ORR); zinc-air batteries; proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Authors

Zhang Yang ¹ , Gong Bingbing ³ , Zhou Benji ¹ , Liu Zhibo ⁶ , Xu Nengneng ¹ , Wang Yongxia ¹ , Xu Xiaoqian ¹ , Cao Qing ¹ , Kolokolov Daniil I. ⁴ , Huang Haitao ⁵ , Lou Shuaifeng ⁶ , Liu Guicheng ⁷ , Yang Woochul ⁸ , Qiao Jinli ^1,2

Affiliations

1	State Key Laboratory of Advanced Fiber Materials, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
2	Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, China
3	School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830017, China
4	Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Prospekt Akademika Lavrentieva 5, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
5	Department of Applied Physics, Research Institute for Smart Energy, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
6	State Key Laboratory of Space Power-Sources, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
7	Beijing Laboratory of New Energy Storage Technology, School of Energy Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
8	Department of Physics, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea

Funding (2)

1	Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China	2022YFE0138900
2	National Natural Science Foundation of China	21972017

The Fe single-atom catalyst (Fe-N-C) with Fe-Nx active sites is considered a promising alternative to Pt-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the exposure and utilization efficiency of the Fe-Nx site in Fe-N-C lead to a certain competitive distance with Pt-based catalysts in the ORR process. Herein, a space-confinement strategy triggered by SiO2 templates to optimize the ORR triple-phase boundary of Fe-N-C, is reported. As expected, the optimized SiO2(4)/Fe-N-C exhibits excellent ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.886 V in 0.1 M KOH. More importantly, the E1/2 loss of SiO2(4)/Fe-N-C is merely 32 mV after 30,000 cycles. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm SiO2-induced carbon defects critically modulate electronic configurations of FeN4 centers, optimizing adsorption energetics of oxygen intermediates. Remarkably, when utilized as air cathodes for zinc-air batteries (ZABs), the device based on SiO2(4)/Fe-N-C displays record-breaking power density (444.10 mW·cm–2) with superior long-term durability over 1013 h, outperforming most reported noble-metal-free electrocatalysts. This work provides a new route to optimize the triple-phase boundary of single-atom catalysts for energy storage applications.

Zhang Y. , Gong B. , Zhou B. , Liu Z. , Xu N. , Wang Y. , Xu X. , Cao Q. , Kolokolov D.I. , Huang H. , Lou S. , Liu G. , Yang W. , Qiao J.
Hydrophobicity Engineering of Hierarchically Ordered SiO2/Fe-N-C Catalyst with Optimized Triple-Phase Boundary for Boosting Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Nano Research Energy. 2025. V.4. N3. e9120180 :1-12. DOI: 10.26599/nre.2025.9120180 Scopus OpenAlex

Submitted:	Mar 31, 2025
Accepted:	Jun 3, 2025
Published online:	Jun 20, 2025
Published print:	Sep 1, 2025

Scopus:	2-s2.0-105014162582
OpenAlex:	W4411329191

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