Construction of Highly Active Metal‐Containing Nanoparticles and FeCo‐N<sub>4</sub> Composite Sites for the Acidic Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Shuhu Yin, Jian Yang, Yu Han, Gen Li, Liyang Wan, You‐Hu Chen, Chi Chen, Ximing Qu, Yanxia Jiang, Shi‐Gang Sun
Abstract
Abstract Metal‐containing nanoparticles (M‐NPs) in metal/nitrogen‐doped carbon (M‐N‐C) catalysts have been considered hostile to the acidic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The relation between M‐NPs and the active sites of metal coordinated with nitrogen (MN x ) is hard to establish in acid medium owing to the poor stability of M‐NPs. Herein, we develop a strategy to successfully construct a new FeCo‐N‐C catalyst containing highly active M‐NPs and MN 4 composite sites (M/FeCo‐SAs‐N‐C). Enhanced catalytic activity and stability of M/FeCo‐SAs‐N‐C is shown experimentally. Calculations reveal that there is a strong interaction between M‐NPs and FeN 4 sites, which can favor ORR by activating the O−O bond, thus facilitating a direct 4 e − process. Those findings firstly shed light on the highly active M‐NPs and FeN 4 composite sites for catalyzing acid oxygen reduction reaction, and the relevant reaction mechanism is suggested.