Nitrogen and chlorine dual-doped mesoporous carbon as efficient nonprecious electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction both in alkaline and acidic electrolytes

Using poly(ethyleneimine) as a source of C and N, FeCl₂as iron and Cl precursor, and SiO₂as template, the first N,Cldual- doped mesoporous carbon (denoted as (FeCl₂-PEI)LH) was prepared. The (FeCl₂-PEI)LH exhibits a high oxygen reduction electrocatalytic activity and superb durability both in alkaline (0.1M KOH) and strong acidic (0.5M H₂SO₄) solutions, significantly outperforming their counterparts doped with single N due to the synergistic coupling effect arising from the codoping of mesoporous carbon with both N and Cl.