| Mandarin Peel Waste-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction |
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Hyokyeong Ahn1, Nayeon Lee1, Seol Baek2, Je Seung Lee1, Sung Yul Lim1 |
1Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea
2Department of Chemistry, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul 04310, Republic of Korea |
Correspondence:
Seol Baek,
Email: sbaek@sookmyung.ac.kr
Je Seung Lee,
Email: leejs70@khu.ac.kr
Sung Yul Lim,
Email: limsy@khu.ac.kr
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Received: 26 August 2025 • Accepted: 27 November 2025
*Hyokyeong Ahn and Nayeon Lee contributed equally to this study as co-first authors. |
| Abstract |
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The development of metal-free, carbon-based electrocatalysts derived from biomass waste has attracted significant attention due to their low cost along with excellent activity, selectivity, and stability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this study, a nitrogen (N)-doped porous carbon catalyst was synthesized from mandarin peel waste (MPW) via a simple thermal treatment method. The optimized electrocatalyst, N-doped MPW-derived catalyst-2 (NMPC-2), exhibits a hierarchically porous structure with a high surface area, facilitating efficient access of reactants to active sites. NMPC-2 demonstrates outstanding ORR activity and stability comparable to that of commercial Pt/C, maintaining excellent performance even over 40,000 cycles of accelerated stability testing. Furthermore, its application in a zinc-air battery shows a high peak power density and stable discharge characteristics. This work presents a simple yet effective strategy for developing biowaste-derived ORR electrocatalysts through a sustainable and practical approach. |
| Keywords:
biowaste upcycling, metal-free electrocatalysts, N-doped carbon, oxygen reduction reaction, zinc-air battery |
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