ZIF-67 incorporated with carbon derived from pomelo peels: A highly efficient bifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction/evolution reactions

[Display omitted] •A MOF was for the first time integrated with a sustainable carbon to form a hybrid.•The ORR/OER catalytic activity, stability and mechanism of the hybrid were studied.•The kinetics- and diffusion-controlled catalytic behaviors of the hybrid were studied.•The hybrid shows a ΔE of 0.79V in 0.1M KOH, among the smallest reported values.•The Co-N4, electrochemical active surface area and interactions work synergistically. Developing carbon catalyst materials using natural, abundant and renewable resources as precursors plays an increasingly important role in clean energy generation and environmental protection. In this work, N-doped pomelo-peel-derived carbon (NPC) materials were prepared using a widely available food waste—pomelo peels and melamine. The synthetic NPC exhibits well-defined porosities and a highly doped-N content (e.g. 6.38 at% for NPC-2), therefore affords excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activities in alkaline electrolytes. NPC was further integrated with ZIF-67 to form ZIF-67@NPC hybrids through solvothermal reactions. The hybrid catalysts show substantially enhanced ORR catalytic activities comparable to that of commercial 20wt% Pt/C. Furthermore, the catalysts also exhibit excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activities. Among all prepared ZIF-67@NPC hybrids, the optimal composition with ZIF-67 to NPC ratio of 2:1 exhibits the best ORR and OER bifunctional catalytic performance and the smallest ΔE (EOER@10mAcm−2-EORR@-1mAcm−2) value of 0.79V. The catalyst also demonstrated desirable 4-electron transfer pathways and superior catalytic stabilities. The Co-N4 in ZIF-67, electrochemical active surface area, and the strong interactions between ZIF-67 and NPC are attributed as the main contributors to the bifunctional catalytic activities. These factors act synergistically, resulting in substantially enhanced bifunctional catalytic activities and stabilities; consequently, this hybrid catalyst is among the best of the reported bifunctional electrocatalysts and is promising for use in metal-air batteries and fuel cells.