Polyvinyl pyrrolidone regulated Co, N co-doped porous carbon for oxygen reduction reaction

Porous structure transition metal carbon material is an effective electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with distinguished performance comparable to noble metal electrocatalysts. Herein, a simple strategy to synthesize cobalt, nitrogen co-doped porous transition metal carbon (PVP-Co@C-800) for ORR. The PVP-Co@C-800 has hierarchically porous structure by one-step pyrolysis compound. The PVP-Co@C-800 efficient exposed Co-Nx active center and optimized the transport pathway of ORR because of the large Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and rich micro/mesoporous/macrospores structure. In particular, polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a source of nitrogen and carbon, it regulates the production of highly dispersed active site Co-Nx for ORR. Moreover, porous structure and the existence of uniformly disperse Co-Nx active sites, the PVP-Co@C-800 exhibits an outstanding oxygen reduction activity (half-wave potential E1/2 = 0.82 V) in KOH and shows more rapid kinetics (51.8 mV dec−1). PVP-Co@C-800 exceptional ORR activity makes it an excellent choice as efficient catalyst for fuel cells and metal-air cells.