CO₂-Derived Carbon Materials for Electrocatalysis: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

The increasing severity of environmental pollution caused by CO2 emissions has prompted significant interest in carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. Among these technologies, the conversion of CO2 to high-value carbon materials has emerged as a promising approach. In particular, carbon materials with desirable properties including high porosity, heteroatom doping with transition metals, and elevated defect densities can be synthesized through chemical reduction using reductants and electrochemical reduction in molten salt electrolytes. These physicochemical features facilitate efficient charge transfer and active site exposure. On this basis, CO2-derived carbon can be used to prepare highly effective electrocatalysts for various electrochemical reactions such as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advances in the use of CO2-derived carbon materials as electrocatalysts, focusing on their structural characteristics, synthesis strategies, and performance across different electrochemical systems.