An animal heart-derived N-self-doped porous carbon as electrocatalysts for efficient oxygen reduction

Abstract Biomass-derived nitrogen-self-doped carbon was prepared by a simple and green approach based on the direct pyrolysis of pork heart using KOH as an activation reagent at controlled temperatures (700–900 ℃). The obtained samples displayed a specific surface area up to 1718.84 m2 g-1, high content of nitrogen (3.03%) and interconnected porous structure, which is able to expose abundant active sites and promote mass transfer. Electrochemical measurements showed that our catalyst possessed a high electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solution that is equivalent to that of commercial Pt/C. The sample carbonized at 700 ℃ (PC-APHs-700) with the onset potential of 0.92 V and half-wave potential of 0.80 V possessed the highest concentrations of graphite and pyridine nitrogen and exhibited the best performance among the PC-APHs-T samples. In addition, PC-APHs-700 had a higher long-term stability and stronger methanol tolerance than commercial Pt/C. This work demonstrates that it is a promising approach to develop and utilize carbon materials with added value as effective metal-free cathode catalysts for alkaline fuel cells based on economic and environmental friendly renewable biomass.