Carbon-based materials have been attracting intense interest for electrocatalysis due to their various merits, such as abundance, low cost, high conductivity and tunable molecular structures. However, to date, the electrochemical activities of these electrocatalysts are mainly attributed to different active dopants (e.g. N, B, P or S), leading to a common concept that heteroatom doping is essential for carbon-based electrocatalysts. Recently, we presented a new concept where the specific topological defects could activate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and developed a facile method to create such unique defects. Subsequent research has extended this new mechanism to other reactions, such as the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) and confirmed that heteroatom doping is not essential but that these defects can serve as actives sites for electrochemical reactions. This new theory then creates a new research direction in electrocatalysis. In this short review, we summarise the origin and presentation of the defect mechanism concept, the possible topological defect structures that are effective for electrochemical reactions, the formation of desirable defects, the challenges in the synthesis and characterization of typical defects and future research directions on the electrochemical defect mechanism.

中文翻译：

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缺陷电催化机理：概念，拓扑结构和观点

碳基材料因其丰富，低成本，高电导率和可调节的分子结构等各种优点而引起了人们对电催化的浓厚兴趣。然而，迄今为止，这些电催化剂的电化学活性主要归因于不同的活性掺杂剂（例如N，B，P或S），导致一个普遍的概念，即杂原子掺杂对于碳基电催化剂必不可少。最近，我们提出了一个新的概念，其中特定的拓扑缺陷可以激活氧还原反应（ORR），并开发了一种简便的方法来创建此类独特的缺陷。随后的研究将这种新机理扩展到了其他反应，例如氢和氧的放出反应（HER和OER），并证实杂原子掺杂不是必不可少的，但是这些缺陷可以充当电化学反应的活性位点。然后，这一新理论为电催化创造了新的研究方向。在这篇简短的评论中，我们总结了缺陷机理概念的起源和表现，对电化学反应有效的可能的拓扑缺陷结构，