Soybean straw biomass-derived Fe–N co-doped porous carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction in both alkaline and acidic media

The development of highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts is of great significance for the large-scale commercialization of fuel cells. In this work, honeycomb-like Fe–N co-doped porous carbon materials (Fe–N–PC) were prepared through a facile one-step pyrolysis strategy using soybean straw biomass as the precursor. The obtained Fe–N–PC catalyst exhibits excellent ORR performance with an onset potential of 0.989 V and a half-wave potential of 0.854 V in alkaline conditions, which positively shift only by 5 mV and 27 mV, respectively than those of the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Furthermore, the onset potential and the half-wave potential of the Fe–N–PC catalysts are up to 0.886 V and 0.754 V, respectively, under acidic conditions, which are superior to those of many other Fe, N-doped electrocatalysts. The ORR process can be regarded as a four-electron transfer process based on RRDE measurements. Moreover, the Fe–N–PC catalyst also shows greater stability and satisfactory methanol tolerance than the Pt/C catalyst. The superior electrocatalytic performance of Fe–N–PC may be attributed to the abundant nanoporous structure, large BET surface area, and Fe–N co-doping, which provide abundant and highly efficient active sites.