This review highlights advancements in carbon-based metal-free electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells and water splitting, suggesting potential improvements and challenges.
Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a fundamental electrochemical process for energy conversion technologies. As a primary electrocatalyst, platinum‐based materials are crucial in the ORR. Despite their high catalytic activity, platinum‐based electrocatalyst materials suffer from high cost, scarcity, and durability limitations. As a result, carbon‐based metal‐free electrocatalysts (C‐MFECs) have emerged as a promising solution due to their earth abundance, cost‐effectiveness, and tunable catalytic properties. This review systematically compiles and analyzes recent advancements of doped C‐MFECs and their electrochemical performance in alkaline media. The values of onset potential ( E onset ), half‐wave potential ( E 1/2 ), and current density have been tried to find out. Additionally, this study explains the mechanism of ORR under the same conditions, emphasizing reaction pathways, either the 2e − route or the more efficient 4e − direct reduction. Also, the applications of C‐MFECs in fuel cells, metal–air batteries, and water splitting have been highlighted. In context with this, finished off by discussing the present challenges and potential directions in this exciting field.
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Islam et al. (2025) studied this question.
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