Angewandte
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adsorption occurred mainly into the micropores.[17a] In view of
N 1s spectra (Figure 1 f) into five component peaks at 397.7,
the similar adsorption capacity and molecular size of iron
phthalocyanine and unsubstituted phthalocyanine, we attrib-
uted the relatively small surface area of the NP-Fe-HPC with
respect to that of the SA-Fe-HPC to the blockage of the pores
and channels within the HPC support by Fe aggregates.[20]
In addition, we further conducted the density functional
theory (DFT) calculations to predicate the pore size distri-
bution (Figure 1c, bottom). It was found that all the samples
derived from HPC possessed the hierarchical porous struc-
ture with micropores and small mesopores centered at 0.8 and
3.5 nm, respectively. In consistence with the decreased nitro-
398.7, 399.8, 401.2 eV, and 402.4 eV corresponding to pyr-
À
idinic N, Fe N bonding, pyrrolic N, graphitic N and oxide N
(Figure 1 f), respectively.[22] Compared to the deconvoluted
high-resolution XPS N 1s spectrum of HPC (Figure S10b), it
is believed that the graphitic N and oxide N species in the SA-
Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC are mainly originated from the N-
doped carbon skeletons in HPC (Table S4). Compared to NP-
À
Fe-HPC, the relatively high contents of pyridinic N, Fe N
bonding, and pyrrolic N observed for SA-Fe-HPC indicate
the presence of more N ligands.
To confirm the presence of single dispersed Fe atoms, we
further performed the X-ray absorption near-edge structure
(XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure
(EXAFS) measurements. As seen in Figure 2a, the XANES
spectrum of SA-Fe-HPC shows the Fe K-pre-edge close to
that of the unpyrolyzed FeIIPc. However, the absence of the
gen uptake (p/p0 < 0.1), the microporous surface area (Smicro
)
of the HPC decreased from 2076.2 m2 gÀ1 to 1089.9 m2 gÀ1 for
SA-Fe-HPC and 752.6 m2 gÀ1 for NP-Fe-HPC by Fe adsorp-
tion. Compared with the mesoporous surface area (Smeso) of
HPC (461.7 m2 gÀ1), the SA-Fe-HPC showed a similar Smeso
(346.4 m2 gÀ1) whilst an obviously decreased Smeso
(184.2 m2 gÀ1) was observed for NP-Fe-HPC due,
most probably, to the blockage associated with the
Fe aggregates.[21]
To measure the iron and carbon crystalline struc-
tures, we further performed powder X-ray diffraction
(XRD). The SA-Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC showed
a broad diffraction peak around 23.18 (Figure 1d)
corresponding to C(002) with a low-angle-shift in
respect to the commercial graphitic carbon (26.48).[22]
Apart from the broad C(002) peak, the SA-Fe-HPC
did not show any characteristic peak for metallic iron,
iron nitrate or iron carbide crystals. In contrast, the Fe-
N-C exhibited a set of sharp peaks (37.78, 43.78, 44.98,
and 48.68) characteristic of iron carbide (JCPDS card:
no. 35–0772). It is worth to note that the NP-Fe-HPC
sample also exhibited a few small, but noticeable,
characteristic peaks at 43.78 and 44.98, though its
microporous structure could stabilize Fe atoms and
confine Fe aggregates. Furthermore, Raman spectrum
of the NP-Fe-HPC showed a higher graphitization
Figure 2. a) Fe K-edge XANES spectra and b) Fourier transforms of k3-weighted
c(k)-function of the EXAFS spectra for the SA-Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC samples
with iron foil and FePc as references. The 57Fe Mçssbauer transmission spectra
measured at 293 K for c) SA-Fe-HPC and d) NP-Fe-HPC.
degree with a higher G band to D band ratio (IG/ID, ca.
0.91) than those of the HPC and SA-Fe-HPC (ca. 0.84)
due probably to additional graphitization induced by
Fe nanoparticles during the high temperature pyrol-
ysis (Figure S9).
We have further carried out X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopic (XPS) measurements on HPC, SA-Fe-HPC and
NP-Fe-HPC. The XPS survey spectra (Figure S10a, Table S2)
indicate that all the samples are dominated by carbon, along
with some nitrogen and oxygen-containing moieties, while the
SA-Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC samples show the presence of
Fe (0.80 and 0.45 at%, respectively). The corresponding high-
resolution XPS spectra of Fe 2p3/2 (Figure 1e, Table S3) were
deconvoluted into three component peaks at 707.1, 709.0 and
714.0 eV,[12b,13b] arising from the metallic iron, ferrous state,
and ferric state, respectively. FeII and FeIII species were
observed for both SA-Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC. However,
Fe0 was observed only for the NP-Fe-HPC sample, indicating,
once again, the presence of the Fe aggregates. In view of the
different FeIII/FeII ratios in SA-Fe-HPC (0.71) and NP-Fe-
HPC (0.49), we further deconvoluted the high-resolution XPS
pre-edge peak at 7118 eV from SA-Fe-HPC revealed that the
square-planar D4h local symmetry of FePc was broken after
the pyrolysis treatment.[23] In contrast, the XANES spectrum
of NP-Fe-HPC is more similar to that of Fe foil, indicating the
presence of metallic Fe0 nanoparticles in the former. Fur-
thermore, the SA-Fe-HPC exhibited higher half-edge energy
than that of NP-Fe-HPC due to a negative charge transfer
from iron to nitrogen.[24] These results are consistent with the
XPS data.
To gain further structural information about Fe atom, we
carried out Fourier transformed EXAFS spectroscopic meas-
urements (R space) on the SA-Fe-HPC and NP-Fe-HPC
samples. As can be seen in Figure 2b, the SA-Fe-HPC
exhibited a slight shift in the Fe-N (1.5 ꢀ) coordination
peaks compared to Fe atom with four-coordinated nitrogen in
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 1 – 7
ꢀ 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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