Fe/Co‐Embedded ZIF‐8 Derived Bimetallic Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nanotubes Adjusted by KCl as Efficient Electrocatalysts

ABSTRACT The development of stable, high‐performance, and low‐cost multifunctional electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is pivotal for advancing energy conversion devices but remains challenging. Herein, we adopt a simple KCl‐assisted MOFs pyrolysis strategy to prepare Fe/Co nanoparticles embedded nitrogen‐doped porous carbon nanotubes (FeCo‐XT‐CNTs). Notably, KCl serves as activator and template to promote the formation of mesoporous bamboo‐like CNTs during pyrolysis process. The optimal catalyst FeCo‐XT‐CNTs‐900 possesses abundant Fe/Co‐N x active sites, bamboo‐like nitrogen‐doped CNTs, and Fe 3 C nanoparticles encapsulated on the top of the CNTs, which exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability. Under alkaline conditions, the half‐wave potential (0.877 V) of FeCo‐XT‐CNTs‐900 is even better than that of commercial Pt/C (0.854 V) for ORR, and the long‐term stability for FeCo‐XT‐CNTs‐900 only has 3 mV shift in half‐wave potential after a 2000‐cycle durability test. The catalyst FeCo‐XT‐CNTs‐900 also exhibits certain OER and HER electrocatalytic properties, realizing integrated trifunctional catalysis as a non‐noble metal catalyst. These outstanding properties are ascribed to the high specific surface area, excellent CNTs structure, and synergistic effects of Fe/Co‐N x species. It provides a simple strategy to develop the MOFs derived nitrogen‐doped carbon materials for various energy‐related electrocatalytic reactions.