Highly dispersed ultrasmall iron phthalocyanine molecule clusters confined by mesopore-rich N-doped hollow carbon nanospheres for efficient oxygen reduction reaction and Zn-air battery

•The FePc molecule clusters are anchored in the mesopores of NHCS to form FePc-NHCS-500.•NHCS breaks the symmetric electron structure of Fe in FePc, increasing the intrinsic activity of Fe-N4.•The mesopore confine of NHCS on FePc increases the exposure, the loading and the utilization of Fe-N4.•FePc-NHCS-500 exhibits excellent ORR performance and outstanding ZAB performance.