Recent Progress in the Identification of Active Sites in Pyrolyzed Fe-N/C Catalysts and Insights into Their Role in Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Iron and nitrogen codoped carbon (Fe-N/C) catalysts have emerged as one of the most promising replacements for state-of-the-art platinum-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. During the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in Fe-N/C catalysts in terms of ORR activity improvement and active site identification. In this review, we focus on recent efforts towards advancing our understanding of the structure of active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts. We summarize the spectroscopic and electrochemical methods that are used to analyze active site structure in Fe-N/C catalysts, and the relationship between active site structure and ORR activity in these catalysts. We provide an overview of recently reported synthetic strategies that can generate active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts preferentially. We then discuss newly suggested active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts. Finally, we conclude this review with a brief future outlook