Enhanced oxygen reduction reaction performance of nitrogen-doped carbon nanocages

Microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) technique was successfully applied to fabricate Nitrogen-doped carbon nanocages (NCNCs) with doping content of 2.94 at.%. The NCNCs treated by HNO3 were characterized by TEM, XPS and Raman technique respectively. The rotating disk electrode voltammetry was used to estimate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance of nanocages in O2-saturated 0.1 M KOH electrolyte. Our results show that NCNCs possess not only electrocatalytic property comparable to those of commercial Pt/C catalyst, but also higher resistance to methanol crossover and better long-term stability than those of Pt/C. Therefore, NCNCs can be regarded as a very prominent alternative for Pt catalyst in ORR area.