Bottom-up synthesis of high-performance nitrogen-enriched transition metal/graphene oxygen reduction electrocatalysts both in alkaline and acidic solution

Oxygen reduction electrocatalysts with low cost and excellent performance are urgently required for large-scale application in fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Though nitrogen-enriched transition metal/graphene hybrids (N-TM/G, TM = Fe, Co, and Ni and related compounds) have been developed as novel substitutes for precious metal catalysts (PMCs) towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), a significant challenge still remains for simple and efficient synthesis of N-TM/G catalysts with satisfactory electrocatalytic behavior. Herein, we demonstrate a universal bottom-up strategy for efficient fabrication of strongly-coupled N-TM/G catalysts. This strategy is implemented via direct polymerization of transition metal phthalocyanine (TMPc) in the two-dimensional confined space of in situ generated g-C3N4 and a subsequent pyrolysis. Such a space-confined bottom-up synthesis route successfully constructs a strongly-coupled triple junction of transition metal-graphitic carbon-nitrogen-doped graphene (TM-GC-NG) with extensive controllability over the specific surface area, nitrogen content/types as well as the states of metal. As a result, the optimized N-Fe/G materials have promising potential as high-performance NPMCs towards ORR both in alkaline and acidic solution.