Publication date: 15th December 2025
Once regarded merely as an inert, black conductive support, carbon has re-emerged as one of the most creative materials in catalysis. Its ability to be chemically and structurally redesigned, through controlled doping, defect engineering, and hierarchical porosity, has revealed an extraordinary range of reactivities once reserved for metals. Today, carbons bridge the molecular and heterogeneous worlds, catalyzing electrochemical transformations with high selectivity and activity while relying solely on earth-abundant elements.
The conceptual shift began with the realization that heteroatom-doped carbons, particularly CxNy frameworks, can act as efficient electro- and photocatalysts.[1,2] N-doped carbons now rival state-of-the-art Pt in ORR, challenging the long-standing paradigm that precious metals are indispensable for catalytic performance. Building upon this foundation, my group recent work explores how carbonaceous materials can extend their reach to more complex electrosynthetic reactions, such as the hydrogenation reactions. In this case, the reaction can be performed in much milder conditions compared to traditional hydrogenations, using water as hydrogen source. I will show that carefully tailored N-doped carbons perform reduction of activated olefins, efficiently mimicking the activity of noble metals.[3]. When abundant metals are introduced as atomically dispersed centers within the carbon lattice (M-N-C materials), they can direct the hydrogenations with remarkable chemo- and diastereoselectivity, yielding either cis- or trans-alkenes depending on the metal identity. Intriguingly, in certain systems, these isolated metal atoms instead poison the intrinsic active sites of the N-doped carbon, revealing an unexpected antagonism within such hybrid catalysts.[4]
Together, these findings reposition carbon from passive scaffold to active catalysts, capable of mimicking enzymatic precision while operating under the principles of electrified chemistry. As we move toward sustainable chemical manufacturing, this transformation of carbon truly marks the passage from black powder to bright future.
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