LAUSR

Abstract The present report demonstrates a simple approach for the synthesis of efficient metal-free electrocatalysts of nitrogen- and sulfur-codoped carbon materials (N–S-DPCs) via carbonization of thiazolothiazole based conjugated microporous polymer precursors (XWB-CMP). The precursors are composed of densely populated thiazolothiazole units that uniformly decorate over the micropore surface and can be readily converted into novel N–S-DPCs with a uniform nitorgen/sulfur distribution by template-free pyrolysis. The electrochemical characterization demonstrates that N–S-DPCs obtained at pyrolysis temperature of 1000 °C exhibits a high electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), superior durability, good methanol tolerance as compared to the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The present work sheds insights into the effects of heteroatom doping on ORR electrocatalysts.