Electrical Pulse Induced One-step Formation of Atomically Dispersed Pt on Oxide Clusters for Ultra-Low-Temperature Zinc-Air Battery

Atomically dispersed sites anchored on small oxide clusters are attractive new catalytic materials. Herein, we demonstrate an electrical pulse approach to synthesize atomically dispersed Pt on various oxide clusters in one step with nitrogen-doped carbon as the support (Pt-1-MOx/CN). As a proof-of-concept application, Pt-1-FeOx/CN is shown to exhibit high activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with a half-wave potential of 0.94 V vs RHE, in contrast to the poor catalytic performance of atomically dispersed Pt on large Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Our work has revealed that, by tuning the size of the iron oxide down to the cluster regime, an optimal OH* adsorption strength for ORR is achieved on Pt-1-FeOx/CN due to the regulation of Pt-O bonds. The unique structure and high catalytic performance of Pt-1-FeOx/CN enable the Zinc-Air batteries an excellent performance at ultralow temperature of -40 degrees C with a high peak power density of 45.1 mW cm(-2) and remarkable cycling stability up to 120 h.

Automated summary

In this study, an electrical pulse method was used to synthesize atomically dispersed Pt on nitrogen-doped carbon support. The Pt-1-FeOx/CN catalyst exhibited high activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) due to optimal OH* adsorption strength achieved by tuning the size of iron oxide clusters. The unique structure and high catalytic performance of Pt-1-FeOx/CN enabled excellent performance in Zinc-Air batteries at ultralow temperature.