Effect of transition metal induced pore structure on oxygen reduction reaction of electrospun fibrous carbon

•Various transition metal containing carbon nanofiber exhibited different catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction.•Transition metal affects to the formation of carbon structure during heat treatment at high temperature.•The difference in catalytic graphitization phenomena lead to structural changes of carbon materials.•Variety of oxygen reduction reaction activity might be caused by structural changes of carbon materials.

Although significant progress has been made in the development of carbon-based oxygen reduction reaction catalysts in alkaline media, it is still needed to do relevant investigation of experimental factors that could influence the electrocatalytic activity of alternative electrocatalysts. In this study, we report the effect of transition metals placed into/onto nitrogen doped carbon nanofibers on the ORR performance. We demonstrated various behaviors of oxygen reduction reaction reactivity depending on embedded transition metals. Detailed physicochemical analysis showed that different surface area and pore structure were formed according to a number of metals and these structural varieties were resulted from difference in catalytic graphitization phenomenon.

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