Carbonaceous materials are commonly used in fuel cell applications, in which they play an important role in maintaining high performance. Recently, carbonaceous materials have been investigated as catalyst supports, electrode catalyst supports, hybrid composite components for membranes, storage systems and other applications, such as activated carbon in microbial fuel cells. This study presents an overview of several modifications performed on those carbonaceous materials to improve their structural and electrochemical properties and, hence, augment fuel cell performance. This review will mainly focus on the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Finally, this paper summarizes the challenges faced in current fuel cell applications and the use of carbonaceous materials to address these challenges. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.