Highly stable and methanol tolerant oxygen reduction reaction electrocatalyst Co/CoO/SnO@N-C nanocubes by one-step introduction of functional components

To develop high-performance non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an urgent demand. We herein report an ingenious strategy to develop highly selective and competitive precious metal-free ORR electrocatalyst Co/CoO/SnO encapsulated in N-rich mesoporous carbon (CCS@NPC) nanocubes, via a simple one-step introduction of all functional components. Atomically mixed composites with significantly enhanced catalytic activity were obtained by adopting amorphous mesoporous ternary metal oxides CoSnO3 nanocubes as precursor and template. The synergistic effect of the triphase nanohybrids (Co, CoO & SnO) anchored in nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon nanocubes promoted the catalytic reactions, owning to the anisotropic morphology, great heterojunction interfaces, and structural stability. The large-scale prepared CCS@NPC exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity toward ORR with an admirable onset potential (1.01 V) and diffusion-limited current density (5.88 mA cm−2). The CCS@NPC showed stronger stability (20 h) and higher methanol tolerance with the concentration up to 8.0 M, compared to that of commercial Pt/C.