Abstract
Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a crucial route for energy saving, emission reduction, and the development of new energy vehicles because of its high power density, high energy density, as well as the low operating temperature which corresponds to fast starting and power matching. However, the rare and expensive Pt resource greatly hinders the mass production of the fuel cell, and the development of highly active and durable non-precious metal catalysts toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the cathode is considered to be the ultimate solution. In this article, a highly active and durable Fe-N-C catalyst was facilely derived from metal-organic framework (MOF) materials, and a favorable structure of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was formed, which accounts for a desired good durability. The as-optimized catalyst has a half-wave potential of 0.84 V for the ORR, which is comparable to that of commercial Pt/C. More attractively, it has good stabilities both in rotating disk electrode (RDE) and single-cell tests, which provides a large practical application potential in the replacement of Pt catalyst as the ORR electrocatalyst in fuel cells.
