The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a critical reaction in energy storage and conversion systems such as metal-air batteries and water splitting. The current commercial OER catalysts are the noble metal based materials, which have a high cost and a limited supply. Xu et al have prepared the nanoporous N-Co3O4 materials as cost-effective and high efficient electrocatalysts for OER by N2 plasma (Xu et al 2017 Nanotechnology 28 165402). This work has successfully demonstrated the simple N2 plasma treatment to be a powerful technique to introduce the nitrogen doping and nanoporous structure in the bulk materials, enhancing the performance of electrochemical catalysis. Based on this study, more future work on developing highly porous non-precious metal-based materials with good conductivity would be promising for energy storage and conversion.