Framework-Derived Tungsten Single-Atom Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction
Bizhi Jiang, Hao Sun, Tao Yuan, Wenhao He, Changlin Zheng, Huijuan Zhang, Junhe Yang, Shiyou Zheng
Abstract
For many types of fuel cells (FCs), the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the bottleneck reaction. At present, a major challenge to the industrialization of these devices is attributed to the high price and inferior stability of the common platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts. To address this issue, a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) derived tungsten (W) single-atom electrocatalyst has been synthesized and evaluated for the ORR. It was found that the prepared catalyst (W–N–C) possesses a W single-atom catalysis center coordinated in a nitrogen-rich carbon matrix with a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.86 V and a negligible current decay over a long-term durability test, which surpass those of many reported nonprecious metals and even commercial Pt/C catalysts.