Biomass-derived carbon for ORR: pine needles as a single source for efficient carbon electrocatalyst

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an important electrode reaction for several power sources. However, the reaction is sluggish and expensive noble-metal catalyst are generally needed. The high price of the noble metals has severely hindered the wide application of the related power sources. Therefore, it is a significant challenge to develop the low-cost and efficient non-precious metal electrocatalysts (NPMC) towards ORR. Herein, a typical biomass waste-pine needles has been used as precursor to prepare a porous carbon material, exhibiting superior catalytic activity toward ORR. An onset and half wave potential of similar to 0.96 and 0.72 V(RHE)were obtained in the alkaline solution, respectively. Furthermore, the activity of obtained NPMC can be further improved when it is mixed with the commercial carbon black. Our present results demonstrated that the biomass, such as pine needles, can be employed as promising carbon precursors for NPMC toward ORR.