Yeast Cells-Derived Hollow Core/Shell Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Microparticles for Sustainable Electrocatalysis

Abstract

The use of renewable resources to make various synthetic materials is increasing in order to meet some of our sustainability challenges. Yeast is one of the most common household ingredients, which is cheap and easy to reproduce. Herein we report that yeast cells can be thermally transformed into hollow, core-shell heteroatom-doped carbon microparticles that can effectively electrocatalyze the oxygen reduction and hydrazine oxidation reactions, reactions that are highly pertinent to fuel cells or renewable energy applications. We also show that yeast cell walls, which can easily be separated from the cells, can produce carbon materials with electrocatalytic activity for both reactions, albeit with lower activity compared with the ones obtained from intact yeast cells. The results reveal that the intracellular components of the yeast cells such as proteins, phospholipids, DNAs and RNAs are indirectly responsible for the latter's higher electrocatalytic activity, by providing it with more heteroatom dopants. The synthetic method we report here can serve as a general route for the synthesis of (electro)catalysts using microorganisms as raw materials.

Cobalt–Cobalt Phosphide Nanoparticles@Nitrogen‐Phosphorus Doped Carbon/Graphene Derived from Cobalt Ions Adsorbed Saccharomycete Yeasts as an Efficient, Stable, and Large‐Current‐Density Electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

“…The microorganisms absorbed metallic ions can serve as effective templates and play a pivotal role in synthesizing many materials with interesting features, for example, in the fields of biomineralization, nanoscience, and energy . In most papers, the Saccharomycete cells were only used as carbon template to produce heteroatom‐doped carbon materials with application of oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline electrolyte . However, the use of phosphorus source in Saccharomycete cells to produce metal phosphides was less reported.…”

Facile Fabrication of Highly Dispersed Pd@Ag Core–Shell Nanoparticles Embedded in Spirulina platensis by Electroless Deposition and Their Catalytic Properties

“…Among these researches, microbial biotemplates (e.g., Diatom , Spirulina platensis ( Sp . ),] Chlorella sp ., Yeast , Virus , Bacillus ,] Pichia pastoris , and Escherichia coli ) stand out because of their unique features, such as exquisite natural morphology, abundant species, low cost, renewable, and environmentally friendly. Using these favorable characteristics to produce micro/nanomaterials with elaborate structure and certain functional properties displays a major thrust in microtemplate research .…”

Environmental Catalysis: Present and Future

“…For example, yeast cells were thermally transformed into hollow core/shell heteroatom‐doped carbon microparticles for the ORR and HOR electrocatalytic reactions (Figure A). The high electrocatalytic activity of these materials was ascribed to the level of heteroatom contents of proteins, DNA, ARN and phospolipids at the intracellular medium . It is worth to note that this kind of cells can be electronically coupled to a monolayer of nanoparticle necklaces to fabricated an original bionanodevice, in which the metabolism of the cells is succcesfully biogated to the nanoparticles system Starting by bacteria growth with iron minerals processes and following the similar synthetic route commented above, heteroatoms Fe−N−C carbons electrocatalysts, which exhibit a mesoporous microestructure and unique physical‐chemistry properties such as high surface areas and high condutivity, were synthesized (Figure B).…”

“… Synthetic procedures which use living microorganisms as raw materials. Electrocatalysts obtained from (A) yeast cells Reproduced with permission of ref ,. Copyright, 2015 American Chemical Society, (B) bacterias.…”

“…This biomaterials showed outstanding ORR catalytic activities owed to their suitable properties and consequently represent promis-ing candidates for the construction of high-performances microbial fuels cells (MFC). [111] Interestingly, plants have been used as starting materials for green synthesis of carbon nanomaterials with electrocatalytic properties for ORR reactions. The resulting electrocatalysts are comparable with the commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst in terms of electrocatalytic activity, stability and resistance to crossover effects.…”