Fabrication of ORR/OER Electrocatalysts with simple one-step strategy from sustainable cornstalks

Here we report a simple efficient one-step strategy to fabricate Oxidation Reduction Reaction (ORR) or/and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) electrocatalysts directly from agricultural cornstalks waste with hierarchical porous structures and massive active hydroxyl groups. CaCl 2 and NH 4 Cl activators were utilized to corrode the cornstalks in order to create a mesopore N-doped hybrid structure that was sufficiently stable under the high-temperature pyrolysis process, which prevented neighboring aggregates of transition metals. The synergistic effect of N, B and Fe, Co within the hierarchical biochar structures guaranteed a favorable ORR activity of 0.848 V and OER activity of 393 mV for the CaCl 2 sample, showed better stability than commercial Pt/C and IrO 2 catalysts.