Mandarin Peel Waste-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

초록

The development of metal-free, carbon-based electrocatalysts derived from biomass waste has attracted significant attention due to their low cost along with excellent activity, selectivity, and stability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this study, a nitrogen (N)-doped porous carbon catalyst was synthesized from mandarin peel waste (MPW) via a simple thermal treatment method. The optimized electrocatalyst, N-doped MPW-derived catalyst-2 (NMPC-2), exhibits a hierarchically porous structure with a high surface area, facilitating efficient access of reactants to active sites. NMPC-2 demonstrates outstanding ORR activity and stability comparable to that of commercial Pt/C, maintaining excellent performance even over 40,000 cycles of accelerated stability testing. Furthermore, its application in a zinc-air battery shows a high peak power density and stable discharge characteristics. This work presents a simple yet effective strategy for developing biowastederived ORR electrocatalysts through a sustainable and practical approach.

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