One‐pot synthesis of multifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution, oxygen evolution and oxygen reduction

Abstract In this work, we report a facile method to prepare P, N co‐doped porous carbon (PNPC) by the carbonization of covalent organic polymer (COP) used as efficient metal‐free electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Overpotential is only 150 mV for the PNPC electrocatalyst to reach 10 mA cm −2 in the acidic medium due to the heteroatom dopants in the carbon matrix; meanwhile, stable HER activity is recorded during 5000 potential cycles. Additionally, overpotential is 343 mV for PNPC electrocatalyst to drive OER catalysis with 10 mA cm −2 , which is comparable to the benchmarked IrO 2 (320 mV). Similarly, PNPC electrocatalyst can achieve a Pt‐like ORR catalytic activity. The power density of the assembled rechargeable zinc‐air battery (ZAB) is 1.8 times higher than that of the commercial system (Pt/C−IrO 2 ) and charge‐discharge voltage gap is well maintained during 20 h test, implying the high stability of the formed PNPC electrocatalyst.