Electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is key to clean and sustainable energy technologies including proton exchange membrane fuel cells and metal-air batteries. However

the high-activation barriers in ORR often makes it the bottleneck of energy conversion processes

and thus high performance ORR electrocatalysts are desired. At present the best commercially available ORR catalyst is based on the precious metal Pt. But it suffers from resource scarcity and unsatisfactory operational stability

thus hindering a widespread and large-scale application of the clean and sustainable technologies. To tackle this problem

extensive efforts have been made in the last decade or so to search after efficient non-precious metal ORR catalysts. Among these

many heteroatoms-doped carbon (HDC) materials appear to be very promising

owing to their easy availability

low cost and excellent electrochemical performance. In this review article

recent advances in this active area are summarized

with the content being categorized according to the different underlying mechanisms of doped heteroatoms. Theoretical and experimental findings regarding HDC materials in ORR catalysis are reviewed

emphasizing the influence of heteroatom doping on the electronic structure of carbon materials. The problems facing HDC based ORR catalysts and further researches required are also discussed.