Nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon with effective electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction

•The NDAC are synthesized by one-step pyrolyzing dopamine in N2 atmosphere.•The NDAC-700 demonstrated a considerable positive onset potential toward ORR.•The NDAC-700 has long-term stability and tolerance to methanol than Pt-C (20%).

Highly efficient metal-free catalysts to improve the performance of oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) have attracted significant attention. Here, nitrogen-doped amorphous carbon (NDAC) were synthesized with a one-step method that pyrolyzed dopamine in a N2 atmosphere at 700 °C, 800 °C, and 900 °C (NDAC-700, NDAC-800, and NDAC-900, respectively). The NDAC-700 demonstrates good catalytic activity with terrific positive onset potential (0.96 V VS RHE), which is close to Pt-C (1.0 V) (20%) toward ORR. Moreover, versus commercial Pt/C (20%) catalyst, it has better long-term operational stability and tolerance to methanol for ORR in alkaline solution. This exciting result increases the possibility of large-scale application of metal-free nanomaterials in fuel cells.

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