Covalent organic polymers derived carbon incorporated with cobalt oxides as a robust oxygen reduction reaction catalyst for fuel cells

Abstract Synthesizing high efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalyst is crucial for electrochemical technologies such as fuel cells. Herein, we proposed a covalent organic polymers derived carbon with cobalt oxides incorporation (Co/N-C-COPs) as ORR electrocatalysts for fuel cells. The Co/N-C-COPs was demonstrated to possess sufficient active sites and uniformly dispersed cobalt and nitrogen elements. The as prepared Co/N-C-COPs at 800 °C showed the best ORR catalytic activity with a half-wave potential (-0.16 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and limiting current density (3.99 mA cm-2) similar to that of Pt/C (-0.15 V vs. Ag/AgCl and 4.05 mA cm-2) in alkaline media. When using the Co/N-C-COPs as cathode electrocatalyst, two types of home-made fuel cells (microbial fuel cell and direct formate fuel cell) delivered a comparable or even higher power output than that using Pt/C, due to its intriguing features including high catalytic activity, poison tolerance and good durability. These results suggested that the as-proposed Co/N-C-COPs catalyst probably provide an alternative avenue for developing the cathode electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications.