Boron and oxygen-codoped porous carbon as efficient oxygen reduction catalysts

Highlights: • A novel B and O-codoped carbon electrocatalyst for ORR was prepared. • The electrocatalyst was prepared by pyrolyzing B and O-rich polymeric network. • The electrocatalyst has high surface area and predominant mesostructure. • The electrocatalyst showed excellent ORR activity in alkaline electrolytes. - Abstract: A low-cost boron- and oxygen-codoped porous carbon electrocatalyst towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been fabricated by a facile one-step pyrolysis approach, while a boron- and oxygen-rich polymer network was used as precursor. The boron- and oxygen-codoped carbon catalyst with high ORR electrocatalytic activity is comparable to that of Pt/C and is superior to that of catalysts doped solely with boron atoms or with oxygen atoms. Furthermore, the optimized boron- and oxygen-codoped carbon catalyst possesses excellent methanol tolerance and long-term durability in alkaline media. The high electrocatalytic activity of the dual-doped carbon catalysts can be attributed to the synergistic effects of high surface area, predominant mesostructure, abundant active oxygen-containing groups, and effective boron doping. The present results show that this boron- and oxygen-codoping strategy could be as a promising way for the preparation of highly efficient ORR catalysts.