Highly Dispersed Fe/Zn/Ce Species on Defect-Rich Carbon for Enhanced Oxygen Reduction and Zinc-Air Battery Performance

A defect-rich carbon catalyst with highly dispersed Fe/Zn/Ce species (FeZnCe-NC-1000) is synthesized via a controllable high-temperature pyrolysis strategy. Electrochemical characterizations reveal that FeZnCe-NC-1000 exhibits enhanced oxygen reduction reaction activity in 0.1 M KOH, featuring favorable kinetics and a dominant 4-electron transfer pathway. It also shows excellent durability with minimal performance degradation after 5000 cycles and strong methanol tolerance. When integrated into zinc-air batteries, FeZnCe-NC-1000 outperforms commercial Pt/C, delivering superior open-circuit voltage, discharge rate performance, specific capacity, and maximum power density. These results demonstrate that FeZnCe-NC-1000 is a promising non-precious metal catalyst with great potential for practical applications in energy conversion and storage systems.