Herein, for the first time, ball-milling of carbon materials (e.g. graphite, graphene oxide or graphene) in the presence of dicyandiamide (DCDA) followed by heat treatment at 800 °C was employed to synthesise N-doped carbons for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline medium. The obtained results highlight that: i) the N-doped nanocarbon catalysts synthesis process employed herein is easy and could be used without hazardous solvents; ii) X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated successful N-doping, iii) N-doped graphite and graphene are Mn-free as confirmed by the ICP-MS analysis, iv) the ORR electrocatalytic activity depends on the carbon source used for the catalyst preparation and v) all the N-doped nanocarbons revealed better ORR performance than the undoped materials.

在此，首次将碳材料（例如石墨，氧化石墨烯或石墨烯）在双氰胺（DCDA）存在下进行球磨，然后在800°C的温度下进行热处理，以合成N掺杂的碳用于氧还原在碱性介质中的反应（ORR）。所获得的结果突出表明：i）本文采用的N掺杂纳米碳催化剂的合成方法是容易的，并且可以在没有危险溶剂的情况下使用。ii）X射线光电子能谱表明成功进行了N掺杂，iii）ICP-MS分析证实，N掺杂的石墨和石墨烯不含Mn，iv）ORR的电催化活性取决于用于制备催化剂的碳源v）所有的N掺杂的纳米碳都比未掺杂的材料具有更好的ORR性能。