Non-precious metal incorporated carbon nanofiber (CNF) composite electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media were developed via a facile approach, based on electrospinning and pyrolysis. According to successive material characterizations, most of the Fe and Co metals embedded in the carbon fibers (FeCo-CNF) were just used to facilitate the incorporation of nitrogen and oxygen species on the CNF surface more effectively without direct participating in the ORR. The experimental resultant FeCo-CNF catalysts were subsequently shown to possess the comparable electrocatalytic activity and the better tolerance to crossovered ethanol than Pt/C in the ORR. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.