The development of electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is one of the principal challenges in the area of renewable energy research.

Fluorine is known to be a key element for various components of batteries since current electrolytes rely on Li-ion salts having fluorinated ions and electrode binders are mainly based on fluorinated polymers. Metal fluorides or mixed anion metal fluorides (mainly oxyfluorides) have also gained a substantial interest as active materials for the electrode redox reactions. In this review, metal fluorides for cathodes are considered; they are listed according to the dimensionality of the metal fluoride subnetwork. The synthesis conditions and the crystal structures are described; the electrochemical properties are briefly indicated, and the nature of the electron transport agent is noted. We stress the crucial importance of the elaboration processes to induce the presence of cation disorders, of anion substitutions (mainly F–/O2– or F–/OH–) or vacancies. Finally, we show that an accurate structural characterization is a key step to enable enhanced material performances to overcome several lasting roadblocks, namely the large irreversible capacity and poor energy efficiency that are frequently encountered.