3D TM-N-C Electrocatalysts with Dense Active Sites for the Membraneless Direct Methanol Fuel Cell and Zn-Air Batteries

Electrocatalysts with high cost-effectiveness for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are essential for fuel cells (FC) and Zn-Air batteries (ZAB), which need highly active sites and suitable carbon substrates to accelerate the charge transfer kinetics. Herein, a simple and extensible method using ball milling and space-confinement pyrolysis is reported to prepare a series of transition metals and N-C catalysts (M-NLPC), which possess three-dimensional porous carbon substrates and dense active sites for efficient ORR. M-NLPC catalysts (especially Fe-NLPC) exhibit outstanding ORR activity with a half-wave potential (