Nitrogen-doped OMCs with high electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction

Well-defined nitrogen-doped order mesoporous carbons (NOMCs) were fabricated by a surface doping method, where melamine acts as nitrogen source to dope the pre-oxidized surface of homemade mesoporous carbon CMK-3, and the overall process avoids introduction of any metal species. Various characterizations revealed that the NOMCs possessed order mesoporous network with large specific surface area, and covalently bonded N atoms within the surface of mesoporous carbon framework with predominantly pyridinic N (Maximum value is 53.8% atomic concentration). The onset potential, half-wave potential and limited current density of Me/HNMK-5 (one of the as-prepared NOMCs), reached 0.92 V (vs. RHE), 0.82 V (vs. RHE) and −4.34 mA cm−2, respectively, as well as superior methanol tolerance and outstanding durability via four-electron pathway in alkaline media, comparable with the commercial 20 wt% Pt/C catalyst.