High-density active sites porous Fe/N/C electrocatalyst boosting the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Presently, the practical application of Fe/N/C catalysts as replacements of Pt for oxygen reduction reaction is still limited by insufficient activity. Herein, we demonstrate a novel design for such catalyst. On one hand, the obtained Fe/N/CSiO2ZnCl2 catalyst owns high densities of well-exposed active-sites derived from three-dimensional well-balanced macro-, meso-, and microporous structures constructed by adopting ZnCl2 salt and SiO2 microspheres as combined templates. On the other hand, simulation reveals that a high loading of catalyst in cathode catalyst layer would not benefit cell performance and fast oxygen reduction reaction process occurs only inside a limited thickness of catalyst layer. Particularly, the Fe/N/CSiO2ZnCl2 shows a maximal output power density as high as 480 mW cm−2 at an ultra-low loading of 0.5 mg cm−2. This study firstly exhibits that development of catalysts with high-density active sites and construct of ultra-thin catalyst layer are of great significance for improving the performance of fuel cell.