Recent advances in research and development of carbon-based metal-free catalysts (C-MFCs) have opened up new research areas for multifunctional electrocatalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, the ORR and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in metal-air batteries, and the OER and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for overall water splitting. New fundamentals governing multifunctional metal-free carbon electrocatalysis were discovered, and recent breakthroughs in this emerging field have enabled C-MFCs to be used as metal-free multifunctional electrocatalysts for various energy-related reactions even beyond the ORR, OER, and HER. This article provides an overview of C-MFCs for multifunctional catalysis, covering their structure design and synthesis and multifunctional catalysis mechanism and potential applications in clean energy conversion and storage, chemical and energy conversion, and environmental protection. Current challenges and future opportunities in this emerging but rapidly developing field are also discussed.

碳基无金属催化剂（C-MFC）的最新研究开发为燃料电池中的氧还原反应（ORR），ORR和氧释放反应（OER）的多功能电催化开辟了新的研究领域。金属-空气电池，以及用于整体水分解的OER和放氢反应（HER）。发现了控制多功能无金属碳电催化的新基础，并且在这个新兴领域的最新突破使C-MFCs可以用作无金属多功能电催化剂，用于除ORR，OER和HER以外的各种与能源相关的反应。本文概述了用于多功能催化的C-MFC，涵盖其结构设计和合成以及多功能催化机理以及在清洁能源转换和存储，化学和能源转换以及环境保护方面的潜在应用。还讨论了这个新兴但快速发展的领域中的当前挑战和未来机遇。