High content of pyridinic- and pyrrolic-nitrogen-modified carbon nanotubes derived from blood biomass for the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline medium

• An ORR electrocatalyst was fabricated from blood biomass and carbon nanotube.
• The N-CNT catalyst exhibits good ORR activity, methanol resistance and stability.
• The pyrolysis process produces high contents of pyridinic and pyrrolic N species.
• The pyridinic-N group may play more important role in the active sites for ORR.

Here we present a facile synthetic route to design nitrogen-doped nanostructured carbon-based electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by the copyrolysis of blood biomass from pig and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at high temperatures. The nitrogen-doped CNTs obtained at 800 °C not only results in excellent ORR activity with four-electron transfer selectivity in alkaline medium, but also exhibits superior methanol-tolerant property and long-term stability. It is confirmed that high-temperature pyrolysis processes can facilitate to produce higher contents of pyridinic- and pyrrolic-N binding groups in electrocatalysts, contributing to the enhancement of ORR performance in terms of onset potential, half-wave potential, and limited current density. We also propose that the planar-N configuration may be the active site that is responsible for the improved ORR electrocatalytic performance. The straight-forward and cheap synthesis of the active and stable electrocatalyst makes it a promising candidate for electrochemical power sources such as fuel cells or metal-air batteries.

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