Graphite felt is a felt-like porous material made of high-temperature carbonized polymers. It is widely used in electrode materials because of its good temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, large surface area and excellent electrical conductivity. In this paper, the surface functional group modification is of graphite felt electrodes (mainly nitrogen doping modification, nitrogen–sulfur or nitrogen–boron co-doping modification) and surface catalytic modification (metal/ion surface modification and metal oxide surface modification as Main). There are two main methods and research progresses to improve the performance of graphite felt electrodes, and the comprehensive performance of surface functional group-modified graphite felt electrodes and surface catalytically modified graphite felt electrodes are compared respectively. The results show that both surface functional group modification and surface catalytic modification can improve the comprehensive performance of graphite felt electrodes. In this paper, the future development direction of graphite felt activation modification is also prospected.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Modification of surface functional groups
        2.1 Nitrogen doping modification
        2.2 Nitrogen-sulfur, nitrogen–boron co-doping modification
    3 Modification of surface catalytic materials
    4 Conclusion and outlook
    References

• Yang Su(School of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning)
• Na Chen(Liaoning Key Laboratory of Chemical Additive Synthesis and Separation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yingkou Institute of Technology)
• Hai‑lin Ren(School of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning)
• Cheng‑wei Li(School of Materials and Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Liaoning)
• Li‑li Guo(Liaoning Key Laboratory of Chemical Additive Synthesis and Separation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yingkou Institute of Technology)
• Zhen Li(Liaoning Key Laboratory of Chemical Additive Synthesis and Separation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yingkou Institute of Technology)
• Xiao‑min Wang(Liaoning Key Laboratory of Chemical Additive Synthesis and Separation, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yingkou Institute of Technology)