Nitrogen and Phosphorus Dual-doped Porous Carbon Nanosheets for Efficient Oxygen Reduction in Both Alkaline and Acidic Media

Development of efficient electrocatalysts with high catalytic performance and low cost for promoting oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in both alkaline and acidic media is highly desired yet a challenging. Here, graphene-like nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped porous carbon nanosheets are prepared by calcinating a homogeneous mixture of glucose, melamine and phosphoric acid with montmorillonite as the nanoreactor. The as-prepared N,P dual-doped porous carbon nanosheets show satisfactory ORR catalytic performance in both alkaline and acidic media due to the synergistic effect of N, P dual-doping, abundant micro-/meso-pores and large specific surface area (835.91m(2)g(-1)). Its catalytic activity in 0.1M KOH outperforms the bench-mark Pt/C catalyst with more positive half-wave potential and larger diffusion current density; its catalytic activity in 0.1M HClO4 is comparable to that of Pt/C. Furthermore, it exhibits excellent tolerance towards methanol crossover and long-term stability, showing great promise as an alternative to Pt/C for application in fuel cells and metal-air batteries.