Recent Progress in Precious Metal-Free Carbon-Based Materials towards the Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Activity, Stability, and Anti-Poisoning

The large-scale application of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) depends heavily on the development of high-performance and cost-effective oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts to replace the traditional Pt-based materials. Among the numerous candidates of ORR electrocatalysts, precious metal-free carbon-based materials have received ever-increasing attention for their unique electronic features, tunable nanostructures, and robustness. Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to raising the intrinsic properties of precious metal-free carbon-based materials, there exists a lot of room for them to be improved in activity, stability, and poison-tolerance. In this Minireview, the latest strategies for enhancing activity by increasing the accessible active sites and promoting the intrinsic activity have been summarized. In addition, with special emphasis on devastating catalyst poisoning, up-to-data tactics for elevating the stability and poison-tolerance are introduced. Finally, conclusions and perspectives are also presented.