Nanocomposites of Carbon as Electrocatalyst

Earnest efforts in developing electrochemical energy production, conversion, and storage devices to meet the energy requirements globally routes to the research and development of highly efficient and sustainable electrocatalysts. The escalated physicochemical characteristics and ease in tunability of carbon material and its allotropes (viz., graphene, graphite, carbon nanotubes, carbon quantum dots, nano diamond, etc.,) facilitated to exercise of its remarkable footprints in the electrocatalytic applications. Due to the trade-off between its conductivity and intrinsic activity, carbon materials are often combined with several metal oxides, sulfides, nitrides, or carbides and form their respective composites. In addition to their enhanced conductivity and stability, carbon nanocomposites will exhibit higher catalytic activity due to their higher surface-to-volume ratio which is crucial for an electrocatalyst. In this chapter, several carbon nanocomposites electrocatalysts used in water splitting (OER, ORR and HER), fuel cells (methanol and proton exchange membrane) and air batteries (lithium and zinc) applications are majorly discussed.