Study of the mechanism of nitrogen doping in carbon supports on promoting electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction over platinum nanoparticles

Nitrogen-doped carbons (Nano-NC) are often employed as functional supports for boosting oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) over Pt-based catalysts, however, the mechanism of N doping on the adsorption and activation of molecular oxygen on Pt active sites is still not clear. Herein, Nano-NCs as the supports were prepared by a facile NH₃ antipyretic method, which allowed to tune the kinds of nitrogen species in carbon matrix and their contents by adjusting the NH₃ antipyretic temperatures. With such an exquisite control, the Pt nanoparticles loaded on the as-obtained Nano-NC showed an optimal Pt particle size (2.10 nm), a higher content of Pt⁰, a large electrochemically active surface area, and fast electron transport ability. As a consequence, the Pt/Nano-NC-800 catalyst with the optimal N-doping showed an outstanding ORR performance with half-wave potential of 0.80 V vs. RHE, limit diffusion current of 5.37 mA/cm² and improved methanol/CO anti-poisoning, which is superior to the commercial Pt/C catalyst (20%, JM), and most of previously reported Pt-based catalysts. This work may pave a way for the design of the advanced supports for Pt-based catalysts for the ORR applications.