Challenges and Opportunities of Transition Metal Oxides as Electrocatalysts

Abstract

As a sustainable energy technology, electrocatalytic energy conversion and storage has become increasingly prominent. The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), and carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) are the key steps in the industrial applications of energy conversion and storage. Compared to the widely used precious metal catalysts, less‐noble transition metal oxides (TMOs) and TMO‐like materials have attracted broad attention as electrocatalysts in the above reactions. In this concept, we summarize the challenges and opportunities of some typical TMOs in electrocatalysis, and modification strategies of TMOs as electrocatalysts are discussed.

Recent advances in perovskite oxide electrocatalysts for Li–O2 batteries

“…Various nonprecious electrocatalysts like transition metal oxides, 11,13,16,17 metal carbides, [22][23][24] and perovskite oxides [25][26][27] have been investigated as cathode catalysts for LOBs. It should be noted that transition metal oxides possess relatively low electrical conductivity and poor stability, 28 and metal carbides have limited active sites because of the aggregation of metal particles. By contrast, perovskite oxides, a class of mixed-metal oxides, have a structural formula of ABO 3 , where A is a lanthanide, alkaline or rare-earth cation, and B is a transition metallic element from the 3d, 4d or 5d configurations.…”

Nanopalladium-Anchored MXene Nanoflowers for Boosting Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…Additionally, the stability of Pt in acidic environments ensures long-term catalytic performance and it also owns near zero overpotential, but its high cost restricts its commercial application. Many non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts like transitional metal oxides 5 and layered double hydroxides 6 have been explored for HER as an alternative to Pt. Palladium (Pd) exhibits promising catalytic activity and can be a viable alternative due to its lower cost.…”

Identifying hexagonal 2D planar electrocatalysts with strong OCHO* binding for selective CO2 reduction

“…[7][8][9][10] Nevertheless, a key oversight in catalyst design has been the disregard of the surface states (i.e., the electrochemistry-induced surface coverage) under reaction conditions, 11 which sometimes can lead to a signicant deviation between theoretical and experimental observations. 12 To circumvent this bottleneck, the surface Pourbaix diagram, as a function of operating potential and pH, can be a valuable tool to describe the occupation state of the catalyst surface under realistic working conditions. [13][14][15][16][17] Consequently, surface Pourbaix diagram calculations are primary and necessary for nding a meaningful catalyst.…”