Nitrogen-doped porous carbon derived from surface-attached polymer layers for oxygen reduction reaction under acidic conditions

We reported the synthesis of nitrogen-doped carbon using surface-attached polyelectrolyte layers as precursors. The synthesized material has a large surface area of 800 m²·g^-1 with uniformed pore distribution. Benefitfed from the high pyridinic nitrogen content, the synthesized nitrogen-doped porous carbon material exhibits promising electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reactions in acidic medium and very high stability against continuous cyclic voltammetry scans. The experimental results demonstrate that surface-attached polyelectrolyte layers are promising carbon and nitrogen sources for the formation of heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials.