Optimal N-doped carbon defect configuration in 2D turbostratic carbon nanomesh for advanced oxygen reduction electrocatalysis.

Charge redistribution strategy driven by heteroatom doping or defect engineering has been developed as an efficient method to endow inert carbon with significant oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity. The synergetic effect between the two strategies is thus expected to be more effective for manipulating the charge distribution of carbon materials for exceptional ORR performance. Herein we reported a novel molecular design strategy to achieve 2D porous turbostratic carbon nanomesh with abundant N-doped carbon defects (NDC). The molecular-level integration of aromatic rings as carbon source and urea units as N source and sacrificial template into the novel precursor of polyurea (PU) promises the formation of abundant carbon edge defects and N doping sites. A special active site of carbon edge defect doped with graphitic valley N was revealed to be responsible for the exceptional ORR performance of NDC material.