Molecular Catalyst Synthesis Strategies to Prepare Atomically Dispersed Fe-N-C Heterogeneous Catalysts

03 October 2022, Version 2
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

We report a strategy to integrate atomically dispersed iron within a heterogeneous nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) support, inspired by routes for metalation of molecular macrocyclic iron complexes. The N-C support, derived from pyrolysis of a ZIF-8 metal-organic framework, is metalated via solution-phase reaction with FeCl2 and tributyl amine, as a Brønsted base, at 150 °C. Fe active sites are characterized by 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy and aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. The site density can be increased by selective removal of Zn2+ ions from the N-C support prior to metalation, resembling the transmetalation strategy commonly employed for the preparation of molecular Fe-macrocycles. The utility of this approach is validated by the higher catalytic rates (per total Fe) of these materials relative to established Fe-N-C catalysts, benchmarked using an aerobic oxidation reaction.

Keywords

iron
single-atom
oxidation
aerobic

Supplementary materials

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Supporting Information File
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Supporting Information. Experimental procedures, characterization data, kinetic data, and supplementary discussion.
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