Engineering Proton‐Coupled Electron Transfer to Break Activity‐Stability Trade‐Off of Oxygen Electroreduction Catalysts for Temperature‐Adaptive Zn–Air Battery
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are regarded as effective electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, integrating high active and long-term durability on SACs is still challenging due to the severe limitations of the activity-stability trade-off. Herein, we report an integrative electrocatalyst combining isolated Fe sites and MoC nanoparticles (MoC/Fe─NC). MoC nanoparticles accelerate ORR kinetics via the proton-feeding effect and optimize Fe site microstructure. Thus, MoC/Fe─NC exhibits a high alkaline ORR activity with half-wave potential (E<sub>1/2</sub>) of 0.916 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode, and exceptional durability of 50k cycles with 5 mV E<sub>1/2</sub> loss. The observed ORR performance is further verified in a zinc-air battery (ZAB) with a high peak power density of 316 mW cm<sup>-2</sup> and operational stability over 1000 h. Moreover, the fabricated temperature-adaptive quasi-solid-state ZAB can cycle stably for 150 h under alternating temperatures. Theoretical calculations and experiment characterizations, involving scanning electrochemical microscopy techniques and distribution of relaxation times analysis, reveal that the excellent capabilities of MoC/Fe─NC arise from accelerated proton-coupled electron transfer, weakened *OH adsorption, and strengthened Fe─N bonds fueled by MoC nanoparticles. This work sheds light on breaking the activity-stability trade-off barrier of SACs for energy-conversion applications.
Authors
- Ting Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5261-9858)
- Kai Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4507-1510)
- Lan Ling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-4657)
- Dirk Lützenkirchen−Hecht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7605-4350)
- Shaobin Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2969-8698)
- Yiwang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4709-7623)
- Yuqin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2803-9399)
- Yonggan Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9836-1749)
Institutions
- Nanchang University (CN)
- University of Wuppertal (DE)
- Gannan Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-03-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202502019
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.73