Earth‐Abundant Transition‐Metal‐Based Electrocatalysts for Water Electrolysis to Produce Renewable Hydrogen

Abstract

Fundamentals of water electrolysis, and recent research progress and trends in the development of earth-abundant first-row transition-metal (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu)-based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution (HER) electrocatalysts working in acidic, alkaline, or neutral conditions are reviewed. The HER catalysts include mainly metal chalcogenides, metal phosphides, metal nitrides, and metal carbides. As for the OER catalysts, the basic principles of the OER catalysts in alkaline, acidic, and neutral media are introduced, followed by the review and discussion of the Ni, Co, Fe, Mn, and perovskite-type OER catalysts developed so far. The different design principles of the OER catalysts in photoelectrocatalysis and photocatalysis systems are also presented. Finally, the future research directions of electrocatalysts for water splitting, and coupling of photovoltaic (PV) panel with a water electrolyzer, so called PV-E, are given as perspectives.

Rational Design and Construction of Cocatalysts for Semiconductor‐Based Photo‐Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution: A Comprehensive Review

“…Pan et al constructed TiO 2 p-n homojunction to realize enhanced PEC H 2 evolution performance. Virtually, it is revealed that most of the excellent PEC water splitting cocatalysts are electrocatalysts, [18][19][20] such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), [21][22][23][24][25] phosphorous metal compounds, [26][27][28] metal oxides, [29][30][31][32] metal hydroxides, [29,33] etc. [16] Alternatively, engineering cocatalysts on the surface of photoelectrodes gradually came to sight recently, as the existence of cocatalysts can bring about the reduced overpotential, accelerated reaction kinetics, enriched active sites, and suppressed corrosion.…”

Construction of Hierarchical Co–Fe Oxyphosphide Microtubes for Electrocatalytic Overall Water Splitting

“…[8] Additionally, utilization of different catalysts for HER and OER would further increase the cost due to the complicated process and extra equipment for manufacturing electrodes. [8] Additionally, utilization of different catalysts for HER and OER would further increase the cost due to the complicated process and extra equipment for manufacturing electrodes.…”

Unveiling the Interfacial Effects for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on MoS2/WTe2 Hybrid Structures

“…The potential required to run the HER ( E HER ) can be defined in terms of the standard reduction potential ( E 0 = 0 V vs RHE) and the overpotential (η) via Equation …”