Engineering Pt and Fe dual-metal single atoms anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon with high activity and durability towards oxygen reduction reaction for zinc-air battery

[Display omitted] •The structure of isolated Pt and Fe single atoms anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon is firstly prepared.•The PtFeNC delivers a high half-wave potential of 0.895 V for ORR.•The primary ZAB based on PtFeNC exhibits a high energy density of 807 mA h/g at 10 mA/cm2. Fabrication of Pt-based electrocatalysts with high activity and excellent durability is critical for the practical applications into zinc-air battery (ZAB). In this work. A novel strategy for the encapsulation of Pt species into the cavities of Fe-doped zeolite imidazolate framework is proposed to increase the density of active metal atoms and improve the activity effectively, where both isolated Pt and Fe single atoms anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon (PtFeNC) are obtained by a simple pyrolysis. Impressively, PtFeNC delivers a half-wave potential of 0.895 V (vs. RHE), Moreover, PtFeNC exhibits a lower yield of peroxide species than FeNC. Importantly, the ZAB battery shows a specific capacity of as high as 807 mA h/g at a discharge current density of 10 mA/cm2. Our findings show that dual- and multi- metallic single atom catalysts with abundant active sites can be achieved to boost electrocatalytic activity for their practical applications in energy storage though the new tactic.