A Universal Metal Ion‐Targeting Coordination Strategy for Precise Synthesis of Heteronuclear Dual‐Atom Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction

Abstract

Abstract Heteronuclear dual‐atoms catalysts (DACs) represent an emerging frontier in heterogeneous catalysis due to maximum atom utilization and synergistic catalysis, yet their precise synthesis remains challenging. Herein, we propose a universal “metal ion targeting coordination” (MITC) strategy to construct a series of heteronuclear DACs. This approach utilizes the bipyridyl (bpy) ligands to coordinate a primary metal (M 1 ), forming an artificial monooxygenase (bpy)M 1 ( μ 2 ‐OH) structure, where electron‐enriched oxygen atoms serve as anchoring sites for a secondary metal (M 2 ). The oxygen bridged M 1 ‐O‐M 2 configurations in the resulting (bpy)M 1 ( μ 2 ‐OH)M 2 precursors enable precise synthesis of heteronuclear DACs during the subsequent pyrolysis. Benefiting from geometric and electronic structure merits, heteronuclear DACs can efficiently catalyze oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) through a more desirable dissociative mechanism, thus circumventing the inherent OH*‐OOH* linear scaling relations. Notably, the FeCo DAC exhibits exceptional ORR performance, with an onset and half‐wave potential of 1.03  and 0.93 V, respectively. The excellent ORR activity of FeCo DAC is further validated in anion‐exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs), delivering a peak power density over 1.3 W cm −2 and a current density of 79.2 mA cm −2 at 0.9 V iR‐free under H 2 ‐O 2 conditions.