Livistona Chinensis leaf as bioorganic frame for porous carbon support and metal corrolate as M-N-C active site to construct oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst

Achieving low-cost and scalable fabrication of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts remains one of the central challenges for the commercialization of high-performance energy conversion devices. In this work, Livistona chinensis leaves (LCL) are used as the sustainable bioorganic frame (BOF) precursor for constructing the carbon material LCLC. After doping transition metal (Fe, Co, Mn) 1, 10, 15-tris(pentafluorophenyl)corrole (TPFC) complexes and followed by pyrolysis, the carbon based ORR electrocatalysts MTPFC/LCLC bearing the metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) active site were prepared. Of all prepared MTPFC/LCLC, the iron corrole doped carbon material FeTPFC/LCLC exhibited the best electrocatalytic ORR activity, featuring a half-wave potential ( E 1/2 ) of 0.877 V (Vs the reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE). The constructed zinc-air battery (ZAB) by using FeTPFC/LCLC cathode achieved an open-circuit voltage of 1.48 V and a specific capacity of 809.9 mAh g -1 (based on consumed Zn), both surpassing the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Our work proved the tremendous potential of Bioorganic frame derived carbon and metal corrolates for practical ORR catalysts.