LAUSR

Biomass-derived carbon materials have received extensive attention as high-performance electrocatalyst. We developed a highly efficient electrocatalyst with Co nanoparticles anchored on N-doped porous carbon material (CoNC) by using yeast as a biomass precursor through a facial activation and pyrolysis process. The CoNC exhibited a comparable catalytic activity with the commercial 20% Pt/C for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with a half-wave potential of 0.854 V. A home-made primary Zn-air battery exhibited an open circuit potential of 1.45 V and a peak power density of 188 mW cm-2. Moreover, the discharge voltage of the primary battery maintained at a stable value up to 9 days. The enhanced performance of CoNC was probably ascribed to its high content of pyridinic-N and graphitic-N species, extra Co loading and porous structure, which provided sufficient active sites and channels to promote mass/electron transfer for ORR. This work provides a promising strategy to develop an efficient non-noble metal carbon-based electrocatalyst for fuel cells and metal-air batteries.