The low oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalytic activities of Mn-based bifunctional electro-catalysts restrict their further development in clean energy equipment. In this work, Co/MnO/N-C oxygen electrocatalyst was prepared through a simple solvothermal and subsequent annealing process by using N-Methyl-D-glucamine as nitrogen and carbon source simultaneously. Benefiting from the abundant oxygen related defect and high content of pyridinic N and graphitic N, the resultant Co/MnO/N-C hybrid presents comparable ORR performance with positive half-wave potential of 0.822 V vs. RHE, high kinetic current density of 3.81 mA cm(-2) and superior stability compare with the commercial Pt/C. Besides, the as-prepared hybrid also showed efficient catalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a low overpotential of 379 mV and low Tafel slope of 101 mV dec(-1). Importantly, this work presents a versatile strategy of Mn-based electrocatalyst in enhancing the ORR and OER electrocatalytic activity to the future design. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.