Surface Molecular Encapsulation with Cyclodextrin in Promoting the Activity and Stability of Fe Single‐Atom Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Fe single-atom catalysts (Fe-SACs) have been extensively studied as a highly efficient electrocatalyst toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Nonetheless, they suffer from stability issue induced by dissolution of metal center and OH− blocking. Herein, surface molecular engineering strategy is developed using β-cyclodextrins (CDs) localized encapsulation. The CD-modified Fe-SAC (Fe-SNC-β-CD) shows obviously improved activity ORR with 0.90 V, 4.10 4.09 mA cm−2 for E1/2, J0 Jk0.9, respectively. Meanwhile, Fe-SNC-β-CD excellent long-term against aggressive stress poisoning. It confirmed through electrochemical investigation that modification β-CD can, on one hand, regulate atomic coordination chemistry interaction between CD FeNx moiety, while other mitigate strong adsorption function protective barrier poisoning molecules leading to enhanced Fe-SACs. encapsulation demonstrates uniqueness post-pyrolysis design catalyst.