Highly Porous Nitrogen and Phosphorus Dual-Doped Carbon with Increased Phosphorus Content As an Efficient Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalyst

Highly porous nitrogen and phosphorus dual-doped carbon (NPC) was synthesized using acetylene black as a carbon source in two steps: (1) solid–gas mechanochemical treatment to prepare nitrogen-doped carbon (NC), (2) heat treatment to dope the NC with phosphorus. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and N 2 gas adsorption analysis revealed that the solid–gas mechanochemical treatment using a ball mill incorporated nitrogen atoms into the carbon network and increased the pore volume and surface area. Furthermore, the resulting NC exhibited enhanced reactivity with ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, which was used as a phosphorus source, upon heat treatment. The phosphorus content in NPC synthesized by two-step mechanochemical and heat treatments reached 1.91 at%, a 14-fold increase compared to that of phosphorus-doped carbon synthesized by heat treatment. The NPC exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction than NC, suggesting that the additional phosphorus doping into NC can improve its electrocatalytic performance.