Covalent organic polymers derived carbon incorporated with cobalt oxides as a robust oxygen reduction reaction catalyst for fuel cells

[Display omitted] •Facile synthesis of cobalt oxides incorporated covalent organic frameworks.•High catalytic activity, poison tolerance and good durability of Co/N-C-COPs.•Co/N-C-COPs prepared at 800 °C exhibited the best ORR catalytic activity.•Power output of Co/N-C-COPs cathode is similar to Pt/C cathode in MFC and DFFC. Synthesizing high efficient oxygen reduction reaction catalyst is crucial for electrochemical technologies such as fuel cells. Herein, we proposed a covalent organic polymers derived carbon with cobalt oxides incorporation (Co/N-C-COPs) as ORR electrocatalysts for fuel cells. The Co/N-C-COPs was demonstrated to possess sufficient active sites and uniformly dispersed cobalt and nitrogen elements. The as-prepared Co/N-C-COPs at 800 °C showed the best ORR catalytic activity with a half-wave potential (−0.16 V vs. Ag/AgCl) and limiting current density (3.99 mA cm−2) similar to that of Pt/C (−0.15 V vs. Ag/AgCl and 4.05 mA cm−2) in alkaline media. When using the Co/N-C-COPs as cathode electrocatalyst, two types of home-made fuel cells (microbial fuel cell and direct formate fuel cell) delivered a comparable or even higher power output than that using Pt/C, due to its intriguing features including high catalytic activity, high poison tolerance and good durability. These results suggested that the as-proposed Co/N-C-COPs catalyst probably provide an alternative avenue for developing the cathode electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications.