B, N Co‐doped Nanocarbon Derived In Situ from Nanoboron Carbide as Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Abstract Heteroatom‐doped metal free carbon materials, especially boron and nitrogen co‐doped carbons have been widely researched as promising oxygen reduction electrocatalysts because of their low cost, high activity and environmental friendliness. However, B, N‐doped carbon electrocatalysts are usually prepared at high temperature and accompanied by the formation of B−N bonds resulting in the inactivation of the active sites. This paper proposed a strategy for synthesizing B and N co‐doped carbons for oxygen reduction reaction in‐situ derived from nano‐boron carbide by one‐step heat treatment at low temperature. This strategy can produce B‐ and N‐doped active sites while avoiding formation of B−N bonds, allowing electrocatalysts to exhibit excellent catalytic activities (E_onset=0.93 V, E_1/2=0.79 V) and better stability (current density remained 93.3% after 12,000 s) comparable to commercial Pt/C (20 wt%). New ideas were provided by this work to massively produce the B and N co‐doped carbon electrocatalysts candidates for ORR.