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Abstract The sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) impede the widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies. Here, a heterostructured Fe 2 N/CrN x @NC catalyst is presented, where CrN x clusters promote H 2 O dissociation and, in concert with Fe 2 N nanoparticles, optimize oxygen intermediates adsorption within an N‐doped carbon matrix. The CrN x ‐induced synergy is further confirmed by in situ Raman and infrared spectroscopy, kinetic isotope effect measurements, and theoretical analyses, which collectively reveal that the elaborate Fe 2 N–CrN x interface is pivotal in accelerating proton‐coupled electron transfer for ORR. As a result, Fe 2 N/CrN x @NC achieves a half‐wave potential of 0.935 V in 0.1 m KOH, exceeding Pt/C. When deployed as the air cathode in aluminum‐air batteries, Fe 2 N/CrN x @NC enables a high discharge voltage at 100 mA cm −2 and an outstanding specific capacity of 2286 mA h g Al −1 . This heterostructure engineering strategy, cooperatively manipulating water dissociation and intermediate adsorption, provides a generalized design paradigm for efficient aluminum‐air battery cathodes.
Zhang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.