The past decade has seen considerable growth in the development of materials for fuel cell electrodes, and there is a desire for active electrocatalysts derived from base metals instead of noble metals. Fuels cells that consume H₂ and O₂ require catalysts to cleave these reactants, with the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) — either 4H⁺/4e⁻ reduction to 2H₂O or 2H⁺/2e⁻ reduction to H₂O₂ — being particularly challenging. The ORR is efficiently performed by certain metalloenzymes, and understanding the links between their structure and function aids the design of molecular ORR electrocatalysts. These bio-inspired catalysts exhibit good activity relative to previous synthetic systems and, furthermore, have provided mechanistic insights relevant to synthetic and enzymatic catalysts. This Review covers recent developments in homogeneous and heterogeneous molecular ORR catalysis, placing emphasis on reaction mechanisms and the factors governing rates and selectivities.

在过去的十年中，用于燃料电池电极的材料的发展取得了长足的发展，并且希望有一种衍生自贱金属而不是贵金属的活性电催化剂。消耗ħ燃料电池₂和O ₂需要催化剂以切割这些反应物，用氧还原反应（ORR） -要么4H ⁺ / 4E ^-还原为2H ₂ O或2H ⁺ / 2E ^-还原成H ₂ ö ₂-特别具有挑战性。ORR由某些金属酶有效地执行，了解它们的结构与功能之间的联系有助于分子ORR电催化剂的设计。这些生物启发的催化剂相对于先前的合成系统表现出良好的活性，此外，还提供了与合成和酶促催化剂有关的机理见解。这篇综述涵盖了均相和异相分子ORR催化的最新进展，重点是反应机理以及控制速率和选择性的因素。