Jing Wang, Guoxiong Wang, S. Miao
Aug 1, 2014
Citations
2
Influential Citations
95
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Carbon
Abstract
Abstract Ammonium ferric citrate (AFC) was used as a single-source molecular precursor to prepare Fe/Fe 3 C nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon by pyrolysis in Ar atmosphere followed by acid-leaching. Comparative studies, using citric acid and ferric citrate as the precursors, indicated that the ammonia and ferric ion in AFC and the pyrolysis temperature affected the composition of iron species and the properties of carbon in AFC-derived materials. Above the pyrolysis temperature of 600 °C, the iron species were Fe/Fe 3 C, and the carbon had a hollow graphitic nanoshell structure in AFC-derived materials. The specific surface area and content of nitrogen element decreased with increasing pyrolysis temperature. The AFC-derived material pyrolyzed at 600 °C had the optimal graphitization degree, specific surface area (489 m 2 g −1 ) and content of nitrogen (1.8 wt.%), thus resulted in the greatest activity for oxygen reduction reaction among the AFC-derived materials pyrolyzed at different temperatures. The AFC-derived material pyrolyzed at 600 °C exhibited improved methanol-resistance ability compared with Pt/C catalyst.