Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction in Fuel Cells and Air Batteries
This community develops catalysts and membranes to speed up the oxygen reduction reaction, the rate-limiting step in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells and zinc-air batteries.
The work centers on designing materials that facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and, increasingly, the reverse oxygen evolution reaction. Recurring materials include nitrogen-doped porous carbons, carbon nanotubes, and single-atom catalysts based on iron, cobalt, or platinum. Researchers focus on tuning the electronic structure of these sites—often through heteroatom doping or high-entropy alloys—to enhance activity and durability. Applications are explicitly named in the titles as fuel cells (particularly PEM and microbial types) and rechargeable zinc-air batteries. The emphasis is on bifunctional catalysts that handle both reduction and oxidation, enabling reversible energy storage.
The largest share of the community's output is found in oxygen research, representing 4.6% of all tracked oxygen papers, followed by carbon (2.7%) and platinum (9.2%). Platinum contributes the highest paper count within this group (8,521 papers), while oxygen contributes the most overall (18,993 papers).
The community comprises 45,149 papers, published primarily in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Electrochimica Acta, and Journal of Power Sources.
Recent work continues to focus on atomic-level engineering of catalysts, with titles describing high-entropy alloys, dual-atom sites, and asymmetric interfacial bonding for oxygen reduction in zinc-air batteries and fuel cells.