B, N Co-doped Nanocarbon Derived In Situ from Nanoboron Carbide as Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Graphical An in-situ derivatization-based nano-boron carbide strategy was proposed to produce B, N co-doped carbon electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. This strategy can produce B- and N-doped active sites while avoiding formation of B−N bonds, allowing electrocatalysts to exhibit excellent catalytic activities comparable to commercial Pt/C and better stability. Heteroatom-doped metal free carbon materials, especially boron and nitrogen co-doped carbons have been widely researched as promising oxygen reduction electrocatalysts because of their low cost, high activity and environmental friendliness. However, B, N-doped carbon electrocatalysts are usually prepared at high temperature and accompanied by the formation of B−N bonds resulting in the inactivation of the active sites. This paper proposed a strategy for synthesizing B and N co-doped carbons for oxygen reduction reaction in-situ derived from nano-boron carbide by one-step heat treatment at low temperature. This strategy can produce B- and N-doped active sites while avoiding formation of B−N bonds, allowing electrocatalysts to exhibit excellent catalytic activities ( E onset =0.93 V, E 1/2 =0.79 V) and better stability (current density remained 93.3% after 12,000 s) comparable to commercial Pt/C (20 wt%). New ideas were provided by this work to massively produce the B and N co-doped carbon electrocatalysts candidates for ORR.