: The Royal Society of Chemistry, pp. - , 2018.
Developing cheap and efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is vital for the immediate commercialization of fuel cells which are still limited by the high cost and low performance of the utilized commercial Pt-based electrodes. As a promising alternative, this study reports on the synthesis of hierarchical iron-doped silver lotus flowers (AgFelotus) as robust ORR electrocatalysts with outstanding tolerance against poisoning with various hydrocarbon impurities (HCs), in-situ generated during fuel cell operation, as well as different fuels from anodic crossover. AgFelotus exhibited a superior ORR activity with more than 40 times higher stability than the commercial Pt/C catalyst in alkaline media. This substantial performance enhancement is attributed to: (i) geometrically factor of the unique flower-like structure providing higher number of electroactive surface sites and (ii) electronically effect originated the electronic interaction between iron and silver particles facilitating ORR charge transfer resistance