Herein, a series of non-precious metal catalysts, nitrogen, phosphorus co-doped porous carbon (NP-PC) materials are successfully fabricated via a facile pyrolysis and activation strategy employing low-cost precursors. Among all prepared catalysts, the optimized NP-PC-0.5 (with 0.5 wt% FeCl3) possesses comparable catalytic activity to that of state-of-the-art commercial Pt/C (C-Pt/C) catalyst. Noticeably, it exhibits significantly superior methanol crossover resistance and better stability than C-Pt/C. The synergetic effect between nitrogen and phosphorus, together with nanoporous structure endow NP-PC-0.5 with practical significance of applicability, rendering it as a promising candidate of Pt-based electrocatalysts in fuel cells. This preparation approach is facile and scalable for fabricating non-precious metal electrocatalysts. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.