Hydrothermal synthesis of vanadium nitride and modulation of its catalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction

A creative hydrothermal synthesis method followed by calcination for vanadium nitride (VN) is reported. The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) study of the catalyst shows that VN possesses a comparable catalytic performance to commercial Pt/C catalyst. The ORR catalytic activity study of vanadium nitride, vanadium carbonitride, and vanadium carbide reveals that tuning anions offers a promising route for the activity enhancement of the non-precious metal catalysts.