Aimed at developing a highly active and stable non-precious metal electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), a novel FexNy/NC nanocomposite—that is composed of highly dispersed iron nitride nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped carbon (NC)—was prepared by pyrolyzing carbon black with an iron-containing precursor in an NH3 atmosphere. The influence of the various synthetic paramete...

Catalytic activity is primarily a surface phenomenon, however, little is known about Co₃O₄ nanocrystals in terms of the relationship between the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activity and surface structure, especially when dispersed on a highly conducting support to improve the electrical conductivity and so to enhance the catalytic activity. Herein, we report a controllable synthes...

Nitrogen-doped carbon materials, including nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) and nitrogen-doped graphene (NG), have attracted increasing attention for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in metal-air batteries and fuel cell applications, due to their optimal properties including excellent electronic conductivity, 4e transfer and superb mechanical properties. Here, the recent progress of NCNTs...

Developing efficient and economical noble-metal free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the essential factors for the industrialization of fuel cells. Recent studies on transition metal ORR catalysts have become the priority to practical low-temperature fuel cells. Herein, we proposed a novel in situ design, Fe2N nanoparticles (NPs) in an N doped porous carbon matrix (Fe2N@...

The large-scale practical application of fuel cells cannot come true if the high-priced Pt-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) cannot be replaced by other efficient, low-cost, and stable electrodes. Here, based on density functional theory (DFT), we exploited the potentials of layered SiC sheets as a novel catalyst for ORR. From our DFT results, it can be predicted that l...

Development of efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is one of the most important issues for optimizing the performance of fuel cells and metal-air batteries. The introduction of nitrogen into carbon nanostructures has created new pathways for the development of non-precious electrocatalysts in fuel cells. In this work, nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) was synthesized by a ...

Electrocatalysts are essential to two key electrochemical reactions, oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in renewable energy conversion and storage technologies such as regenerative fuel cells and rechargeable metal–air batteries. Here, we explored N-doped graphene as costeffective electrocatalysts for these key reactions by employing density functional theory (D...