Advanced transition metal/nitrogen/carbon-based electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications
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tps://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9835-8
SPECIAL TOPIC: Electrocatalysis & Energy Science
Advanced transition metal/nitrogen/carbon-based electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications 1,2
1,2
1
Tang Tang , Liang Ding , Zhe Jiang , Jin-Song Hu 1
1,2*
1,2*
& Li-Jun Wan
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Received May 4, 2020; accepted July 20, 2020; published online October 19, 2020
The development of advanced transition metal/nitrogen/carbon-based (M/N/C) catalysts with high activity and extended durability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is critical for platinum-group-metal (PGM) free fuel cells but still remains great challenging. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in two typical M/N/C catalysts (atomically dispersed metalnitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalysts and carbon-supported metal nanoparticles with N-doped carbon shells (M@NC)) with an emphasis on their potential applications in fuel cells. Starting with understanding the active sites in these two types of catalysts, the representative innovative strategies for enhancing their intrinsic activity and increasing the density of these sites are systematically introduced. The synergistic effects of M-N-C and M@NC are subsequently discussed for those M/N/C catalysts combining both of them. To translate the material-level catalyst performance into high-performance devices, we also include the recent progress in engineering the porous structure and durability of M/N/C catalysts towards efficient performance in fuel cell devices. From the viewpoint of industrial applications, the scale-up cost-effective synthesis of M/N/C catalysts has been lastly briefed. With this knowledge, the challenges and perspectives in designing advanced M/N/C catalysts for potential PGM-free fuel cells are proposed. electrocatalysis, ORR, metal-nitrogen-carbon, M@NC, fuel cells, oxygen reduction Citation:
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Tang T, Ding L, Jiang Z, Hu JS, Wan LJ. Advanced transition metal/nitrogen/carbon-based electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications. Sci China Chem, 2020, 63, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9835-8
Introduction
As a clean energy conversion system, fuel cell converts the chemical energy of fuel into electric energy [1–3]. When hydrogen is used as the fuel, the device only generates water with zero carbon emission. Unlike thermal engines with the conversion efficiency of around 20% limited by the Carnot cycle [4], fuel cells are environmental-friendly with a theoretical efficiency close to 100% [5]. Stimulating by the rising need for electrical vehicles, proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are recently reviving in both scientific and *Corresponding authors (email: [email protected]; [email protected])
industrial communities. Although the overpotential for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) at the anode is usually less than 20 mV, it
