Insight into the nitrogen-doped carbon as oxygen reduction reaction catalyst: The choice of carbon/nitrogen source and active sites

Nitrogen doped carbon material works as non-noble-metal catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction . In this work the doping effect on two different carbon material by two different nitrogen sources is studied. The carbon material studied is self-prepared carbon ribbon with higher graphitization degree compared with commercial Vulcan XC72 carbon powder. NH 3 and glycine are used as nitrogen sources which produce nitrogen containing functionalities after high temperature pyrolysis . NH 3 doping of carbon ribbon has no positive effect on the ORR activity, while an obvious increase in the activity is found for the glycine doped carbon ribbon. The NH 3 and glycine doped Vulcan carbon show similar activities which are better than undoped Vulcan carbon. The difference is explained by graphitization degree, nitrogen content and type of nitrogen containing functionalities.