2021 Roadmap: electrocatalysts for green catalytic processes

Abstract

Serious challenges in energy and the environment require us to find solutions that use sustainable processes. There are many sustainable electrocatalytic processes that might provide the answers to the above-mentioned challenges, such as the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), water splitting, the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), and the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). These reactions can enhance the value added by producing hydrogen energy through water splitting or convert useless CO2 and N2 into fuels and NH3. These electrocatalytic reactions can be driven by high-performance catalysts. Therefore, the exploration of novel electrocatalysts is one of the important electrocatalytic fields. In this paper, we aim to systematically discuss a variety of electrocatalysts used for sustainable processes and to give further insights into their status and associated challenges. We invited many famous research groups to write this roadmap with topics including platinum (Pt) and its alloys for ORR, oxides for ORR, chalcogenides for ORR, carbon-based hollow electrocatalysts for ORR, carbides for ORR, atomically dispersed Fe–N–C catalysts for ORR, metal-free catalysts for ORR, single-atom catalysts (SACs) for ORR, metal boride (MB) electrocatalysts for water splitting, transitional metal carbides (TMCs) for water splitting, transition metal (TM) phosphides for water splitting, oxides for water splitting, sulfides for water splitting, layered double hydroxides for water splitting, carbon-based electrocatalysts for water splitting, Ru-based electrocatalysts for water splitting, metal oxides for CO2RR, metal sulfides for CO2RR, metals for CO2RR, carbon for CO2RR, SACs for CO2RR, heterogeneous molecular catalysts for CO2RR, oxides for NRR, chalcogenides for NRR, C3N4 for NRR, SACs for NRR, etc. Their contributions enabled us to compile this 2020 roadmap on electrocatalysts for green catalytic processes and provide some suggestions for future researchers.

Materials AIILnInO4 with Ruddlesden-Popper Structure for Electrochemical Applications: Relationship between Ion (Oxygen-Ion, Proton) Conductivity, Water Uptake, and Structural Changes

“…In the past years, the need of developing new materials suitable for using in various electrochemical devices keeps growing. From electrocatalysts [ 120 ] and MIEC membranes [ 121 ] to SOFCs [ 122 ], PCFCs, and PCECs [ 123 ], every branch of energy application sciences requires novel and highly effective materials for creation of advanced devices and technologies. The active growth of investigation of cathode materials with layered perovskite structure [ 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] makes the task of creating electrochemical sources with the same type of structure of electrolyte more relevant.…”

A Mean-Field Model for Oxygen Reduction Electrocatalytic Activity on High-Entropy Alloys

“…Electrocatalysis is expected to play a pivotal role for the transition to a sustainable production of chemicals and fuels. However, for many of the cornerstone reactions of this transition the catalyst material is so rare that the electrochemical solutions cannot be scaled to a global level [1,2,3] . Moreover, for some reactions no good catalyst material exists at all [4] .…”

Layered Oxygen-Deficient Double Perovskites as Promising Cathode Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

“…Despite essential progress, which recently has been achieved in the development of individual SOFCs materials (electrolytes, anodes, cathodes, collectors, and sealants) [ 3 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ] and the production and testing of SOFCs [ 1 , 2 , 7 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], some urgent challenges still exist. One of the most important of these challenges is the search for, development of, and study of new electrode materials, which possess high stability, thermal and chemical compatibility, and improved electrochemical performance towards cathode and electrode reactions occurring in SOFCs.…”