Electronic and Physical Property Manipulations: Recent Achievements towards Heterogeneous Carbon-based Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Heterogeneous carbon-based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts with distinctive properties afford new exciting opportunities of low-cost processing, address critical issues in real-world applications and strengthen economic competitiveness of catalytic process. This minireview is mainly centered on the recent achievements of new and interesting design concepts of carbon-based ORR catalysts, especially focusing on the electronic structure manipulations of both metal-free heteroatom doped-carbons and M-N-C catalysts. Effect of other key physical factors including density and dispersity of active sites, pore structure and conductivity on ORR behavior and accordingly nichetargeting synthetic strategies will be also illustrated. In the end, a brief illumination of challenges and future research directions for heterogeneous carbon-based ORR catalysts will be provided.