Iron phosphides nanoparticles strongly coupled to N-doped carbon for high-efficiency oxygen reduction and evolution

Constructing composite structures is an effective strategy for tailoring the electronic configuration and balances the adsorption/desorption capability of oxygen-containing intermediates for obtaining high-performance bifunctional catalysts. Herein, an in-situ pyrolysis strategy was used to construct Fe 2 P nanoparticles supported on N-doped carbon (Fe 2 P/NC) catalyst. The DFT indicated that the catalytic activity of the as-prepared catalyst is significantly increased by the strong electronic interaction between the Fe 2 P nanoparticles and the nitrogen-doped carbon, which endows the catalyst with fast electron transfer capability and optimizes the free energy between the catalyst and the adsorbed intermediate, as well as the d-band center of the material. The as-synthesized Fe 2 P/NC has a low potential gap ΔE (ΔE = E j=10 – E 1/2 ) of ca. 0.75 V, a specific capacity as high as 833 mAh·g Zn − 1 and cycling stability for 1320 cycles at the current density of 10 mA·cm −2 . Such a synthesis strategy provides an effective route to realizing applications for portable electronic Zn-air battery-related devices.