Aluminum plays an essential role as an excellent coating material in diversified applications due to its better corrosion resistance and physicochemical properties. Employing such a material as a coating on different metallic substrates such as carbon steel would benefit many industries such as the automotive, aviation, shipbuilding, construction, electronics etc. Amongst the various available coating techniques, electrodeposition of aluminum (Al) Al alloys have gained significant attention in the last 10 years as a metallic protection coating for various commercial substrates and has become the industry’s choice owing to being lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and cost-effective. This paper shall provide a detailed review covering electrochemical deposition of Al and Al alloys using ionic liquids with various cations, anions, and additives, and reports on progress in development thus far. It shall also cover the challenges in the electrodepositing aluminum, its alloys on light weight metal substrates viz., magnesium (Mg), commercial substrates such as low carbon steel, spring steel, and their pretreatments. The factors that play an important role in electroplating on an industrial scale, along with future challenges, are discussed.

Pd catalyst with dendritic morphology was synthesized on ordered and uniformly distributed titania nanotubes (TNT/Ti), and bare Ti by a simple electrochemical deposition process. The influence of support morphology was studied in relation to Pd deposition and its electro catalytic oxidation of formic acid. The structural property of Pd dendrites was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction. The electrochemical study showed the activity and durability of Pd/TNT/Ti catalyst for formic acid oxidation was enhanced compared to Pd/Ti electro catalyst. The synergetic contribution from TNT/Ti as support for Pd and its enhanced catalytic activity is discussed.

Palladium was electrodeposited on an electrochemically activated carbon black substrate using potentiostatic technique, with and without the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG‐6000) as an additive. Scanning electron micrographs showed change in morphology of Pd from spherical to flower, with increasing additive concentration. As an electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), formic acid oxidation and CO stripping, Pd nanoflowers displayed three‐ to fourfold increase in electrocatalytic activity in comparison to the spherical Pd deposits in terms of electrochemical surface area (ESA) and mass specific current density. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed, the introduction of additive with varying concentration effect the direction of Pd growth thereby changing the morphology from spherical to flower. The result demonstrates an increase in efficiency of Pd utilization achieved with the addition of PEG during electrodeposition, which could also be applicable to other precious metal electrocatalysts. A scheme for the change in Pd morphology during electrodeposition with additive is also proposed.

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Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) functionalized by oxygen plasma were used as a support for platinum–ruthenium nanoparticles for electrochemical methanol oxidation. The influence of plasma treatment time on the electrocatalytic activity was investigated by cyclic voltammetry, CO stripping voltammetry, and chronoamperometry. The electrocatalysts were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X‐ray diffraction. The results showed that oxygen plasma treatment led to the formation of CO and COO groups on the CNT surface. Platinum–ruthenium nanoparticles dispersed with an optimum plasma treatment time of 30 min exhibited the maximum catalytic activity towards methanol oxidation. The rationale for the high catalytic activity is discussed.

Zinc (Zn) and zinc–nickel (Zn–Ni) electrodeposition has been widely used in many industries, such as automotive and aerospace, for corrosion protection of steel components owing to their excellent corrosion resistance. Conventional zinc and zinc–nickel electrodeposition is performed in different types of aqueous baths (acid and alkaline). Such electrolytes suffer from certain drawbacks such as hydrogen gas evolution, low coulombic efficiencies, and environmental toxicity. Electrodeposition of Zn and Zn–Ni alloys from ionic liquids has gained significant attention in aerospace and automotive sectors owing to the different environments they provide for electrodeposition. This paper reviews the progress in deposition of zinc and zinc-nickel alloys in non-aqueous systems, especially ionic liquids. In addition, the challenges and technological developments associated with the Zn and Zn–Ni deposition on different substrates and the factors that need to be considered while electroplating at an industrial scale are discussed.

Fuel cells are a key enabling technology for the future economy, thereby providing power to portable, stationary, and transportation applications, which can be considered an important contributor towards reducing the high dependencies on fossil fuels. Electrocatalyst plays a vital role in improving the performance of the low temperature fuel cells. Noble metals (Pt, Pd) supported on carbon have shown promising performance owing to their high catalytic activity for both electroreduction and electrooxidation and have good stability. Catalyst preparation by electrodeposition is considered to be simple in terms of operation and scalability with relatively low cost to obtain high purity metal deposits. This review emphasises the role of electrodeposition as a cost-effective method for synthesising fuel cell catalysts, summarising the progress in the electrodeposited Pt and Pd catalysts for direct liquid fuel cells (DLFCs). Moreover, this review also discusses the technological advances made utilising these catalysts in the past three decades, and the factors that impede the technological advancement of the electrodeposition process are presented. The challenges and the fundamental research strategies needed to achieve the commercial potential of electrodeposition as an economical, efficient methodology for synthesising fuel cells catalysts are outlined with the necessary raw materials considering current and future savings scenario.