Co3O4on Fe, N Doped Bio-Carbon Substrate for Electrocatalysis of Oxygen Reduction

Searching for efficient non-noble metal electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has become a hot topic in electrochemical field. Herein, duck blood containing heme (a type of ferriporphyrin) is carbonized and activated to obtain Fe, N doped carbon. The activated carbonized blood (a-CB) exhibits an extremely high specific surface area of 2655 m(2) g(-)(1). Then, Co(3)O(4)nanoparticles are loaded on the efficient substrate via hydrothermal method. The as obtained Co3O4/a-CB composite exhibits good catalytic performance for ORR. The onset and half-wave potentials are 0.95 and 0.77 V vs. RHE, respectively. These values are comparable to those of commercial Pt/C (20 wt.-%) catalyst. What's more, Co3O4/a-CB shows better durability and methanol tolerance than commercial Pt/C, making it a promising electrocatalyst for ORR. Compared to artificial porous heteroatom doped carbon materials, this work seeks raw materials from natural biomass waste to obtain efficient carbon substrate with both high porosity and Fe, N self-doping feature for catalyst applications.