Biomass-derived porous heteroatom-doped carbon spheres as a high-performance catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction

A heteroatoms-doped hollow biocarbon spheres with high surface area and hierarchical porous structure were successfully prepared by hydrothermal treating and followed pyrolyzing the mixture of brewer's yeast powder, ferric chloride and ammonium hydroxide. The catalyst displays excellent ORR catalytic activity in alkaline medium, with a 28 mV positive shift (0.861 vs. 0.833 V) in half-wave potential compared to that of commercial 20 wt.% Pt/C (JM)297.