Pyridinic‐N Protected Synthesis of 3D Nitrogen‐Doped Porous Carbon with Increased Mesoporous Defects for Oxygen Reduction

Nitrogen (N)‐doped carbons are potential nonprecious metal catalysts to replace Pt for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Pyridinic‐N‐C is believed to be the most active N group for catalyzing ORR. In this work, using zinc phthalocyanine as a precursor effectively overcomes the serious loss of pyridinic‐N, which is commonly regarded as the biggest obstacle to catalytic performance enhancement upon adopting a second pyrolysis process, for the preparation of a 3D porous N‐doped carbon framework (NDCF). The results show only ≈14% loss in pyridinic‐N proportion in the Zn‐containing sample during the second pyrolysis process. In comparison, a loss of ≈72% pyridinic‐N occurs for the non‐Zn counterpart. The high pyridinic‐N proportion, the porous carbon framework produced upon NaCl removal, and the increased mesoporous defects in the second pyrolysis process make the as‐prepared catalyst an excellent electrocatalyst for ORR, exhibiting a half‐wave potential (E_1/2 = 0.88 V) up to 33 mV superior to state‐of‐the‐art Pt/C and high four‐electron selectivity (n > 3.83) in alkaline solution, which is among the best ORR activities reported for N‐doped carbon catalysts. Furthermore, only ≈18 mV degradation in E_1/2 occurs after an 8000 cycles' accelerating stability test, manifesting the outstanding stability of the as‐prepared catalyst.