Fe/Ni bimetal and nitrogen co-doped porous carbon fibers as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

In this work, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts Fe/Ni bimetal and nitrogen co-doped porous carbon fibers (Fe x /Ni y -NPCF), derived from electrospun nanofiber , have been prepared. In order to optimize the ORR performance of one dimension (1D) catalysts, SiO 2 were used as template to create the hierarchical porous structure. The morphology of Fe x /Ni y -NPCF was investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). By adjusting the ratio of iron and nickel, the influence of the trace of secondary-metal doping in electrocatalyst on catalytic activity was deeply studied. The electrochemical measurements suggested that the trace of secondary-metal doping was good for increasing the half-wave potential of electrocatalyst. The optimized Fe 28 /Ni 2 -NPCF exhibited an excellent catalytic activity with an onset potential of 0.96 V and a half-wave potential of 0.88 V, which are comparable to that of the benchmark 20 wt% Pt/C. This excellent catalytic performance was derived from secondary-metal doping and abundant pore structure .