A highly ordered Pt-free Fe-N-C catalyst is synthesized through a hydrogen bonding-assisted self-assembly route. The catalyst has a porous structure with an average pore size of 5.5 nm and a large surface area of 416 m(2) g(-1), making it highly active in oxygen reduction. Cells assembled with the synthesized catalyst perform significantly better than those assembled with amorphous Fe-N-C cathode catalysts. The maximum powers of cells assembled from the highly ordered and amorphous catalysts are 252 and 60 mW cm(-2), respectively. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.