Effectively incorporating iron, nitrogen, and sulfur functionalities on carbon surface for a superior electrocatalyst toward oxygen reduction reaction

•Fe, N, and S functionalized carbon electrocatalyst for ORR.•Effective suppression of the formation of the unstable species.•Superior catalytic activity to Pt/C catalyst toward ORR in the fuel cell operating range.•Better durability and methanol tolerance than Pt/C in alkaline electrolyte.

We demonstrate here a Fe, N, and S functionalized carbon (Fe/N/S-C) derived from an iron incorporated and p-toluenesulfonate doped polypyrrole precursor on a carbon support as an efficient catalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Such a strategy could effectively suppress the formation of inferior activity metal species and less active oxidized type sulfur species. The as-synthesized Fe/N/S-C catalyst exhibited a highly catalytic activity for ORR which is comparable to the state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C catalyst at low overpotential range while have a better catalytic activity at the fuel cell operation potential range. In addition, this catalyst showed a higher durability and better tolerance to alcohol fuel than Pt/C catalyst.

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