Atomic-Level Fe-N-C Coupled with Fe3C-Fe Nanocomposites in Carbon Matrixes as High-Efficiency Bifunctional Oxygen Catalysts

Highly active and durable bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts are of pivotal importance for clean and renewable energy conversion devices, but the lack of earth-abundant electrocatalysts to improve the intrinsic sluggish kinetic process of oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER) is still a challenge. Fe-N-C catalysts with abundant natural merits are considered as promising alternatives to noble-based catalysts, yet further improvements are urgently needed because of their poor stability and unclear catalytic mechanism. Here, an atomic-level Fe-N-C electrocatalyst coupled with low crystalline Fe3C-Fe nanocomposite in 3D carbon matrix (Fe-SAs/Fe3C-Fe@NC) is fabricated by a facile and scalable method. Versus atomically FeNx species and crystallized Fe3C-Fe nanoparticles, Fe-SAs/Fe3C-Fe@NC catalyst, abundant in vertical branched carbon nanotubes decorated on intertwined carbon nanofibers, exhibits high electrocatalytic activities and excellent stabilities both in ORR (E-1/2, 0.927 V) and OER (E-J=10, 1.57 V). This performance benefits from the strong synergistic effects of multicomponents and the unique structural advantages. In-depth X-ray absorption fine structure analysis and density functional theory calculation further demonstrate that more extra charges derived from modified Fe clusters decisively promote the ORR/OER performance for atomically FeN4 configurations by enhanced oxygen adsorption energy. These insightful findings inspire new perspectives for the rational design and synthesis of economical-practical bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.