Hierarchical porous S-doped Fe–N–C electrocatalyst for high-power-density zinc–air battery

Zinc–air battery has drawn increasing attention, but however, suffers from low-power density. Here, we show an S-doped Fe–N–C catalyst with hierarchical porous architecture as an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst for a high-power-density zinc–air battery. We demonstrate that the macropores and mesopores in the interconnected hierarchical morphology of Fe–N–C catalyst significantly increase the accessible active Fe–N4 sites during ORR; the combination of microstructure and nanostructure in the Fe–N–C catalyst provides an ideal aerophilic/hydrophobic surface, promoting the O2 transport during ORR; the heteroatom S-doping in the carbon skeleton boosts the intrinsic activity of the single Fe–N4 moiety. Therefore, the zinc–air battery assembled with such Fe–N–C catalyst exhibits superior performance with a super high-power-density of 453 mW cm−2. We report a S-doped Fe–N–C catalyst with a hierarchical porous structure for the high-power-density zinc–air battery. The structure engineering of atomically dispersed Fe–N–C catalyst from microscale through nanoscale to atomic scale greatly enhanced the oxygen reduction reaction kinetics. As a result, this Fe–N–C catalyst achieves a super high-power-density in zinc–air battery application. [Display omitted] •A record high power density for zinc-air battery is achieved by S-doped Fe-N-C catalyst with hierarchical porous structure.•The hierarchical porous structure increases the accessible Fe-N4 sites, and provides an ideal aerophilic surface for O2 transport.•S-doping boosts the intrinsic activity of the single Fe-N4 moiety.