Carbon-based catalysts of the oxygen reduction reaction: Mechanistic understanding and porous structures

Carbon-based catalysts are potential substitutes for noble-metal catalysts in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) owing to their excellent electrical conductivities and chemical stabilities. To ration-ally design and accelerate the identification of highly efficient carbon-based ORR catalysts, improv-ing the design of the active sites and microstructures is necessary. In this review, strategies for im-proving the intrinsic performances, activities, stabilities, and anti-poisoning properties of catalysts are analyzed. As a critical component of the microstructure, the porous structures of catalysts sig-nificantly affect their distributions of active sites and levels of mass transfer, which are also exten-sively analyzed. Finally, based on the formation of active sites and the fabrication of porous struc-tures, conclusions and perspectives regarding the future development of highly efficient car-bon-based electrocatalysts are provided.& COPY; 2023, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.