Emerging 2D Materials for Electrocatalytic Applications: Synthesis, Multifaceted Nanostructures, and Catalytic Center Design

Abstract

Currently, the development of advanced 2D nanomaterials has become an interdisciplinary subject with extensive studies due to their extraordinary physicochemical performances. Beyond graphene, the emerging 2D‐material‐derived electrocatalysts (2D‐ECs) have aroused great attention as one of the best candidates for heterogeneous electrocatalysis. The tunable physicochemical compositions and characteristics of 2D‐ECs enable rational structural engineering at the molecular/atomic levels to meet the requirements of different catalytic applications. Due to the lack of instructive and comprehensive reviews, here, the most recent advances in the nanostructure and catalytic center design and the corresponding structure–function relationships of emerging 2D‐ECs are systematically summarized. First, the synthetic pathways and state‐of‐the‐art strategies in the multifaceted structural engineering and catalytic center design of 2D‐ECs to promote their electrocatalytic activities, such as size and thickness, phase and strain engineering, heterojunctions, heteroatom doping, and defect engineering, are emphasized. Then, the representative applications of 2D‐ECs in electrocatalytic fields are depicted and summarized in detail. Finally, the current breakthroughs and primary challenges are highlighted and future directions to guide the perspectives for developing 2D‐ECs as highly efficient electrocatalytic nanoplatforms are clarified. This review provides a comprehensive understanding to engineer 2D‐ECs and may inspire many novel attempts and new catalytic applications across broad fields.

On‐Chip Investigation of Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction of 2D Materials

“…Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been demonstrated as promising catalysts for ORR. [1][2][3]42,43] Arplasma treatment is a regular defect engineering strategy to enhance the electrocatalytic performance of TMDs by creating defects on their basal planes without introducing complications. [44,45] However, the effectiveness of such a defect engineering strategy has only been demonstrated on the HER performance of TMD nanosheets.…”

“…The past decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in 2D materials for various electrocatalytic reactions, owing to their large surface area, unique electronic structures, and exotic physiochemical properties. [ 1–6 ] In addition, 2D materials also provide an ideal platform to investigate the complicated catalytic mechanism and optimize catalytic performance regarding crystal defect, [ 7,8 ] doping, [ 9,10 ] strain, [ 11 ] phase engineering, [ 12,13 ] and many more. However, the intrinsic electrocatalytic activities of 2D nanosheets are often difficult to characterize in conventional electrochemical methods built on catalyst films due to the inevitable involvement of complicated interfaces from stacking, wrinkling and agglomeration, as well as the use of supports and binders.…”

Multifaceted Catalytic ROS‐Scavenging via Electronic Modulated Metal Oxides for Regulating Stem Cell Fate

“…[23,24] Designing metal oxides for efficient ROS-scavenging has been extremely limited due to their high oxidation states of metal centers originating from coordinated electronegative atoms, which also deteriorate the redox properties of metal centers. [9,[25][26][27][28] Thus, it is essential to search for suitable strategy to overcome the unbalanced valance states during catalytic ROS-scavenging and achieve reversible catalytic cycles with high kinetics. [29][30][31] Among various metal oxides, Co 3 O 4 is considered one of the most potential candidates for catalytic ROS-scavenging because of the high redox potential of Co 3+ /Co 2+ .…”

Nanostructures and catalytic atoms engineering of tellurium‐based materials and their roles in electrochemical energy conversion

“…To achieve the design of high‐performance electrocatalysts, many strategies for nanostructures and catalytic atoms engineering have been developed, such as chemical/physical/multiplex templating strategies, heteroatom doping, vacancy/defect engineering, and phase engineering 42,43 . By tuning the intrinsic physicochemical properties and catalytic centers, 44 the engineered Te NMs may provide new electrocatalysts to meet the specific requirements of novel catalytic applications 45–47 . Although some reviews have briefly described the synthesis and properties of Te NMs; few has focused on the topics of engineering Te NMs for electrochemical energy conversion 48 .…”