LAUSR

Iron phthalocyanine (FePc) has inspired substantial interest in the context of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) owing to its prominent catalytic activity in alkaline media; however, its poor stability significantly hinders its practical applications. Heterostructures with a strong coupling effect between different components have considerable potential to promote the activity and stability simultaneously. Hence, a heterostructured bimetallic phthalocyanine (FePc/CoPc HS) catalyst with heterogeneous distribution of metallic elements is designed. Compared with FePc, FePc/CoPc HS demonstrates higher kinetic current density (increased by >100%) and more robust durability (enhanced by 20.5%) for the ORR. In addition, a Zn-air battery with FePc/CoPc HS as the cathode catalyst achieves high power density (128 mW cm(-2)) and high open-circuit voltage (1.67 V). X-ray absorption fine structure and theoretical calculations reveal that the heterostructure design induced elongates the Fe-N bond length, and augments electron density around the Fe active sites, and reduced highest-occupied molecular orbital and lowest-unoccupied molecular orbital energy gap are responsible for the boosted ORR performance. This work enriches the understanding of electronic structure modulation of heterostructured bimetallic phthalocyanine based ORR electrocatalysts.