MoP assists the promotion on Fe2P and FeN4 for oxygen reduction and zinc-air battery

It is of great significance but remains challenging to simultaneously development cost-effective and efficient non-noble metal electrocatalysts (NNMEs) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in both alkaline and acidic solutions. In current work, a multi-component synergism system is developed, which is comprised of molybdenum phosphide (MoP) shell onto iron phosphide clusters anchored on carbon matrixes that embedded with numerous FeN 4 species (MoP/Fe 2 P-FeN 4 ). The optimized MoP/Fe 2 P-FeN 4 electrocatalyst delivers a synergistic enhancement in both alkaline and acidic ORR performances: E 1/2 : 0.885 V (0.1 M KOH electrolyte) and E 1/2 : 0.742 V (0.1 M HClO 4 electrolyte). Furthermore, the equipped zinc-air batteries (ZABs) of MoP/Fe 2 P-FeN 4 exhibit a power density of 140.6 mW cm −2 @219.6 mA cm −2 , which surpasses the corresponding Fe 2 P-FeN 4 and commercial Pt/C catalyst. The computational calculations reveal that MoP/Fe 2 P-FeN 4 shows a relative increase of d -band center closer to Fermin level than Fe 2 P-FeN 4 , tuning the rate-determining step to conversion of *O to *OOH intermediate, thus significant reducing the energy barrier and enhancing ORR activity. This strategy opens new opportunities to rational design of Fe-based nanocomposites for stimulated ORR and further ZAB activities.