A facile and low-cost synthesis of MnOx/Mn2NNC nanohybrid as an advanced oxygen reduction electrocatalyst
Highlights: • We demonstrate a facile route to fabricate a novel MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC hybrid. • MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC displays an excellent ORR activity. • MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC affords overwhelmingly better durability than 20 wt% Pt/C. - Abstract: We demonstrate a one-step, low-cost and easily scalable pyrolysis route to fabricate a novel MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC nanohybrid with MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}N nanoparticles (20–30 nm) anchored on the wrinkled N-doped carbon nanosheets (denoted as NC). MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC displays a remarkably higher ORR activity than that of NC, suggesting that the MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}N nanoparticles play an important role in enhancing the ORR activity. Furthermore, MnO{sub x}/Mn{sub 2}NNC exhibits overwhelmingly better durability than commercial 20 wt% Pt/C, to be specific, 93.7% current retention after continuous operation for 24,000 s, while 59.7% for 20 wt% Pt/C.