Yu Jianmin, Le Thi Anh, Tran Ngoc Quang, Lee Hyoyoung
Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, South Korea.
Department of Chemistry, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, South Korea.
Chemistry. 2020 May 20;26(29):6423-6436. doi: 10.1002/chem.202000209. Epub 2020 Apr 6.
The depletion of fossil fuels has accelerated the search for clean, sustainable, scalable, and environmentally friendly alternative energy sources. Hydrogen is a potential energy carrier because of its advantageous properties, and the electrolysis of water is considered as an efficient method for its industrial production. However, the high-energy conversion efficiency of electrochemical water splitting requires cost-effective and highly active electrocatalysts. Therefore, researchers have aimed to develop high-performance electrode materials based on non-precious and abundant transition metals for conversion devices. Moreover, to further reduce the cost and complexity in real-world applications, bifunctional catalysts that can be simultaneously active on both the anodic (i.e., oxygen evolution reaction, OER) and cathodic (i.e., hydrogen evolution reaction, HER) sides are economically and technically desirable. This Minireview focuses on the recent progress in transition-metal-based materials as bifunctional electrocatalysts, including several promising strategies to promote electrocatalytic activities for overall water splitting in alkaline media, such as chemical doping, defect (vacancy) engineering, phase engineering, facet engineering, and structure engineering. Finally, the potential for further developments in rational electrode materials design is also discussed.
化石燃料的枯竭加速了对清洁、可持续、可扩展且环境友好型替代能源的探索。氢由于其优越的特性而成为一种潜在的能量载体，水的电解被认为是其工业化生产的一种有效方法。然而，电化学水分解的高能量转换效率需要具有成本效益且高活性的电催化剂。因此，研究人员致力于开发基于非贵金属且储量丰富的过渡金属的高性能电极材料用于转换装置。此外，为了进一步降低实际应用中的成本和复杂性，在阳极（即析氧反应，OER）和阴极（即析氢反应，HER）两侧都具有活性的双功能催化剂在经济和技术上是理想的。本综述聚焦于基于过渡金属的材料作为双功能电催化剂的最新进展，包括在碱性介质中促进整体水分解的电催化活性的几种有前景的策略，如化学掺杂、缺陷（空位）工程、相工程、晶面工程和结构工程。最后，还讨论了合理设计电极材料的进一步发展潜力。
