Electroactive Cu-P-Coupled Moieties Doped in Hierarchically Porous Carbon as Efficient Catalysts for the Oxygen-Reduction Reaction.

A porous carbon material that was co-doped with copper and phosphorus (Cu-P-C) was synthesized by the direct thermal conversion of [(Ph P) CuCl ] in the channels of an SBA-15 template and found to be an impressive Cu-based electrocatalyst. The prefabricated Cu-P moieties in the starting [(Ph P) CuCl ] were retained during the preparation process of the catalyst. These Cu-P active sites effectively catalyzed the oxygen-reduction reaction (ORR). Moreover, the hierarchically porous morphology of the Cu-P-C material, which demonstrated a large specific surface area, allowed for a higher density of the Cu-P active sites, thereby facilitating mass transfer and further boosting the electrocatalytic activity of the Cu-P-C catalyst. The as-obtained catalyst exhibited surprising catalytic activity, with a halfwave potential of 0.833 V in alkaline medium, which was comparable to that of the commercial Pt/C-JM catalyst, and possessed the highest activity among the reported M-P-C catalysts for the ORR.