The development of cost-effective and high-performance non-noble metal catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) holds substantial promise for real-world applications. Introducing a secondary metal to design bimetallic sites enables effective modulation of a metal–nitrogen–carbon (M–N–C) catalyst's electronic structure, providing new opportunities for enhancing ORR activity and stability. Here, we successfully synthesized an innovative hierarchical porous carbon material with dual sites of Zn and Mg (Zn/Mg–N–C) using polymeric ionic liquids (PILs) as precursors and SBA-15 as a template through a bottom-up approach. The hierarchical porous structure and optimized Zn–Mg bimetallic catalytic centers enable Zn/Mg–N–C to exhibit a half-wave potential of 0.89 V, excellent stability, and good methanol tolerance in 0.1 M KOH solution. Theoretical calculations indicated that the Zn–Mg bimetallic sites in Zn/Mg–N–C effectively lowered the ORR energy barrier. Furthermore, the Zn–air batteries assembled based on Zn/Mg–N–C demonstrated an outstanding peak power density (298.7 mW cm⁻²) and superior cycling stability. This work provides a method for designing and synthesizing bimetallic site catalysts for advanced catalysis.

中文翻译：

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分级多孔碳上的 Zn-Mg 协同双位点作为锌-空气电池的先进氧还原电催化剂

用于氧还原反应（ORR）的经济高效且高性能的非贵金属催化剂的开发为实际应用带来了巨大的前景。引入辅助金属来设计双金属位点可以有效调节金属-氮-碳（M-N-C）催化剂的电子结构，为增强ORR活性和稳定性提供了新的机会。在这里，我们使用聚合离子液体（PIL）作为前驱体和 SBA-15 作为模板，通过自下而上的方法成功合成了一种具有 Zn 和 Mg 双位点（Zn/Mg-N-C）的创新分层多孔碳材料。分级多孔结构和优化的Zn-Mg双金属催化中心使Zn/Mg-N-C在0.1 M KOH溶液中表现出0.89 V的半波电位、优异的稳定性和良好的甲醇耐受性。理论计算表明，Zn/Mg-N-C 中的 Zn-Mg 双金属位点有效降低了 ORR 能垒。此外，基于Zn/Mg-N-C组装的锌空气电池表现出出色的峰值功率密度（298.7 mW cm ^-2）和优异的循环稳定性。这项工作提供了一种设计和合成先进催化用双金属位点催化剂的方法。