Recent Advances and Perspectives of Nanostructured Amorphous Alloys in Electrochemical Water Electrolysis

Abstract

The energy crisis put forward higher requirements for the development of sustainable energy systems, and the production of green hydrogen by electrochemical water electrolysis is one of the important ways to achieve this goal. Transition metal amorphous alloys have been widely investigated as efficient electrocatalysts for water electrolysis. However, the low catalytic activity, high cost, lack of multifunction, poor stability, and unclear catalytic mechanism on amorphous alloy electrocatalysts have severely limited their efficiency. In this review, we summarize the recent progress on amorphous alloys. Specifically, the characteristics, structure, and preparation methods of amorphous alloys and their application, especially in water electrolysis, are discussed in detail. On the basis of the function-oriented design and the solution of key problems, the electrocatalytic performance has been effectively improved in quantity and quality. In the future, studies should focus on the aspects of controlling material morphology, element doping, composite structure, and interface characteristics, as well as the structure–activity relationship and synergetic effect. This review is of great significance to promote the study of structural design, structure–activity relationship, efficiency improvement, and catalytic mechanisms in electrocatalysis.

Pd–Co-Based Electrodes for Hydrogen Production by Water Splitting in Acidic Media

“…Furthermore, considering the excellent results obtained in the case of Ni-based nanostructured electrodes for alkaline electrolyzers [ 49 , 50 , 51 ], in this work, the Pd–Co alloys have been obtained in the form of an array of nanowires using alumina membranes (AAM) as the template [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ]. In fact, as demonstrated in [ 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 ], due to the high surface area, the electrodes based on the arrays of nanowires showed very good performance compared to the planar ones. This is generally true for all electrochemical devices with nanostructured electrodes [ 4 , 63 ] such as batteries [ 64 , 65 , 66 ], sensors [ 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 ], supercapacitors [ 71 , 72 , 73 ] and solar cells [ 74 , 75 , 76 ].…”

Review and Perspective on Transition Metal Electrocatalysts Toward Carbon-Neutral Energy

“…This review provides novel aspects in the field of electrocatalysis and is distinct from other resources available in the literature. While there are many review articles that focus on aspects related to this current work, they tend to focus on either a specific catalyst classification, such as single atom catalysts, MOFs, noble metal alloys, or Cu-derived catalysts, or they focus on only one reaction of interest, such as water splitting, − CO 2 RR, ,− or NRR. , A review article that is similar to this one in terms of scope and catalyst structures studied is the work by Bhatt and Lee . Bhatt and Lee’s work focuses on providing an overview of theoretical developments for Pt-free and/or metal-free electrocatalysts for various electrochemical reactions for potential fuel cell applications.…”

Biomass-Derived Mo2C@N, P Co-Doped Carbon as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…Hydrogen (H 2 ) is believed to be an ideal energy carrier thanks to its high energy density and eco-friendly production possibilities. , Renewable electricity-powered hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a green and sustainable way to produce H 2 from water electrolysis, but it requires active electrocatalysts to reduce the large overpotentials that spawn unnecessary energy consumption. − Pt-based catalysts are the most efficient ones, but their practical use is seriously prohibited by the unsatisfactory stability, high price, and low earth abundance. , Researchers are endeavoring to exploit cost-efficient alternatives free from noble metal elements, which include transition metals/alloys and their borides, carbides, nitrides, phosphides, sulfides, etc. ,− Among them, early transition-metal-based carbides (e.g., Mo 2 C and W 2 C) have attracted interest owing to their similar electronic configurations to Pt and outstanding HER activity within a wide pH window. − Although progress has been made on these promising electrocatalysts, the design of ultrafine carbides that are robust under harsh preparation (high temperature) and working (corrosive electrolytes) conditions is still challenging, in particular, the scaled-up preparation with naturally available resources rather than expensive chemicals. , …”