Biomass is the ideal precursor for fabricating oxygen reduction
reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts due to its large-scale and low-cost
production, as well as its renewability. Among various forms of biomass,
especially waste pig blood is a sustainable precursor for the synthesis
of functional electrocatalysts. However, various proteins or metal
substances present in the waste pig blood act as impurities and impede
the electrocatalytic performance, preventing its direct use as an
electrocatalyst. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of hierarchical
2D porous Fe single-atom catalysts on a thermally exfoliated graphene
oxide support using hemoglobin-rich red blood cells obtained from
purified waste pig blood discarded during the slaughtering process.
Because of the widespread Fe single-atom active sites formed via an
effective and short heat treatment method and the outstanding mass-transfer
properties of the hierarchical porous structure, pig blood-derived
carbon (PBC/900/M) showed an excellent ORR performance
in alkaline media. Moreover, PBC/900/M was successfully
employed as a cathode material in anion exchange membrane fuel cells
(AEMFCs) and showed a maximum power density of 658 mW/cm2, suggesting the remarkable potential for application in AEMFCs.
This strategy provides a general approach to prepare a highly efficient
single-atom-based catalyst with high performance using abundant biomass
as a cost-effective electrocatalyst source.