Asefa Tewodros, Huang Xiaoxi
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854, USA.
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 98 Brett Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854, USA.
Chemistry. 2017 Aug 10;23(45):10703-10713. doi: 10.1002/chem.201700439. Epub 2017 Jun 29.
Fuel cells, water electrolyzers, and metal-air batteries are important energy systems that have started to play some roles in our renewable energy landscapes. However, despite much research works carried out on them, they have not yet found large-scale applications, mainly due to the unavailability of sustainable catalysts that can catalyze the reactions employed in them. Currently, noble metal-based materials are the ones that are commonly used as catalysts in most commercial fuel cells, electrolyzers, and metal-air batteries. Hence, there has been considerable research efforts worldwide to find alternative noble metal-free and metal-free catalysts composed of inexpensive, earth-abundant elements for use in the catalytic reactions employed in these energy systems. In this concept paper, a brief introduction on catalysis in renewable energy systems, followed by the recent efforts to develop sustainable, heteroatom-doped carbon and non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts, the challenges to unravel their structure-catalytic activity relationships, and the authors' perspectives on these topics and materials, are discussed.
燃料电池、水电解槽和金属空气电池是重要的能源系统，已开始在我们的可再生能源领域发挥一定作用。然而，尽管对它们进行了大量研究工作，但它们尚未得到大规模应用，主要原因是缺乏能够催化其中所采用反应的可持续催化剂。目前，大多数商业燃料电池、电解槽和金属空气电池中常用的是基于贵金属的材料作为催化剂。因此，全球范围内已经进行了大量研究工作，以寻找由廉价、储量丰富的元素组成的替代无贵金属和无金属催化剂，用于这些能源系统中的催化反应。在这篇概念论文中，将讨论可再生能源系统中催化作用的简要介绍，随后是开发可持续的、杂原子掺杂碳和非贵金属基电催化剂的最新努力，揭示其结构 - 催化活性关系所面临的挑战，以及作者对这些主题和材料的观点。
