Large-scale growth of isolated Fe-Ni oxides nanocatalysts to boost low temperature oxygen catalysis

•Isolated Fe-Ni oxides catalysts were grown under 278 K ice/water mixing condition.•Fe-Ni oxides catalysts show good oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities at 278 K.•NiO2(113), NiFe2O4(331) and Fe2O3(300) are active sites of Fe-Ni oxides catalysts.•The catalytic activities of active sites are calculated by first-principles theory.•Low temperature route is a new road to grow atom-isolated catalysts at large scale. Isolated nanocatalysts have attracted numerous attentions. Conventionally, however, vigorously stirring, ultrasonically dispersion or other expensive instrument is adopted to grow isolated nanocatalysts sites. Temperature is an important factor to affect the dispersion and aggregation of nanocatalysts. Herein, we have developed a low temperature (273 K ∼ 278 K) route to grow isolated Fe-Ni oxides nanocatalysts under ice/water mixing environment (273 K ∼ 278 K). Experimental results demonstrated that the ice/water environments were the most suitable low temperatures (273 K ∼ 278 K) to grow isolated Fe-Ni oxides nanocatalysts on a large-scale, which demonstrate good low temperature (273 K ∼ 278 K) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities. First-principles calculation elucidated that the isolated distribution of NiO2(113), NiFe2O4(331) and Fe2O3(300) active sites contributed to good low temperature (273 K ∼ 278 K) ORR activity of Fe-Ni oxides nanocatalysts. The low temperature (273 K ∼ 278 K) ice/water mixing environment will pave a new road to produce atomically isolated nanocatalysts on a large scale for commercial applications.