Abstract:Cellulose-based carbon materials have shown excellent performance as catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In recent years, the growing demand for clean energy technologies has highlighted the limitations of traditional platinum-based catalysts, including high cost, limited resource availability, and poor long-term stability. This has stimulated increasing interest in non-precious metal alternatives. Porous carbon electrocatalysts derived from abundant and renewable cellulose offer several advantages, such as low cost, high specific surface area, ordered and tunable porosity, good chemical stability, and excellent electrical conductivity. This review systematically summarizes the preparation methods and formation mechanisms of cellulose-derived carbon materials, including hydrothermal carbonization, chemical/physical activation, hard templating, and aerogel carbonization, and discusses how these methods affect the resulting structure and catalytic performance. Recent progress in the application of cellulose-based carbon materials for electrocatalytic ORR is also summarized, along with a comparative analysis of materials with different structural characteristics. Finally, future research directions and application prospects for cellulose-based carbon materials in electrocatalysis are proposed. |