NOVELTY - Making an oxygen reducing cathode catalyst, involves: mixing a carbon source with a transition metal precursor to form a metal precursor loaded carbon substrate free of precious metals; adding a nitrogen precursor compound having N:C ratio of at least 1:1 to the metal precursor loaded carbon substrate to form carbon-metal-nitrogen precursor; and pyrolyzing the precursor in a closed reaction vessel at an autogenic pressure of 2-100 bar, where pyrolyzing decomposes the carbon-metal-nitrogen precursor compound and increases nitrogen precursor activity and mobility.    USE - For making a cathode catalyst coated diffusion layer for a low temperature fuel cell (claimed); in membrane electrode assemblies for oxygen reduction reactions; in batteries; and in electrochemical sensors.    ADVANTAGE - The method produces improved metal, nitrogen, and carbon containing catalysts effective for the reduction of oxygen in low temperature fuel cells and other electrochemical reactions. The present method provides non-precious metal electrochemical cathode catalysts for the reduction of molecular oxygen in a fuel cell. In addition, the method controls the anchoring of a nitrogen containing compound on a high surface area carbon surface, which actively contributes to the catalytic activity of the cathode catalyst over pre-existing methods of depositing nitrogen, thus effectively increasing the catalytic activity per unit mass of catalytic material on a substrate. Moreover, the method lowers the cost for producing the catalyst material and it follows a simple synthesis method compared to platinum/carbon catalysts and other non-precious metal catalysts conventionally used in fuel cell designs.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for a method for making a cathode catalyst coated diffusion layer for a fuel cell, involving: providing a gas diffusion layer; and applying the cathode catalyst on at least a portion of the gas diffusion layer.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a flow diagram of a method for making an oxygen reduction cathode catalyst.