One of the major limitations to low temperature fuel cell technology is the cost associated with platinum electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Pyrolyzed transition metal-nitrogen carbon catalysts are one class of candidate materials to replace platinum, but historically suffer from low activity and stability relative to precious metals.

In this study, we report a catalyst that is pyrolyzed in such a way as to maximize the number of nitrogen sites on the catalyst surface and thereby maximize the catalyst activity towards ORR. Electrochemical measurements show that the catalyst activity towards ORR improved with increased concentration of nitrogen and an optimum concentration of nitrogen was found to be close to 10.3 weight%. The observed catalytic activity can also be correlated to BET surface area. The optimized catalyst showed a surface area as high as 914m2/g and with predominantly mesoporous morphology.