FeCo nanoparticles wrapped in N-doped carbon derived from Prussian blue analogue and dicyandiamide as efficient oxygen reduction electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries.

FeCo nanoparticles wrapped in N-doped carbon is developed as efficient oxygen reduction electrocatalysts for Al-air batteries • N-doped graphitic carbon embedded with FeCo nanoparticles has been prepared. • The PD-800 is an efficient ORR catalyst and comparable with Pt/C. • Al-air battery for PD-800 surpasses that of Pt/C catalyst. Developing highly active and durable electrocatalysts with low-cost for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of paramount importance for promoting economical and high-performance Al-air batteries. Herein, nitrogen-doped carbon decorated with FeCo nanoparticles catalysts is prepared by a low-cost and facile approach employed Prussian blue analogue and dicyandiamide as precursors. The obtained catalyst exhibits remarkable ORR activity with an onset potential (0.981 V vs. RHE) and a high half-wave potential (0.848 V vs. RHE), as well as superior stability in alkaline conditions. The outstanding electrocatalytic performance of electrocatalysts might be resulted from the hierarchical porous structure and synergetic effect between FeCo alloy and N-doped graphitic carbon species. As a demonstration, the optimized catalysts are employed as the cathode catalysts in a Al-air battery, which shows remarkable discharge performance with higher open-circuit voltage of 1.67 V and large power density of 98.62 mW cm−2 which exceeding commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts (1.65 V, 90.81 mW cm−2), and exceptional cycle stability of 40 h (4 cycles). This work will provide a chance to explore scalable advanced catalysts in Al-air battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]