Recent progress in noble metal nanocluster and single atom electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Hydrogen, a renewable and clean energy carrier is the best alternative to fossil fuels. Hydrogen evolution from water electrolysis using renewable electricity energy is quite attractive. Noble-metal-based materials are currently...

Experimental and Theoretical Advances on Single Atom and Atomic Cluster‐Decorated Low‐Dimensional Platforms towards Superior Electrocatalysts

“…[1,108,109] Most importantly, the structural control of the metallic clusters of ACEs is becoming a new strategy to finely tune the reactivity and, in turn, the intrinsic catalytic properties of their catalytically active centers, thus promoting the activation of ultractive hot spots for different electrocatalytic processes. [8,79] Nanocarbon platforms with different dimensionalities have been used to support different types of atomic clusters, thus regulating a bunch of ion migration processes together with the energetic levels of adsorbed intermediate catalytic species in key catalytic reactions like oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) and CO 2 electroreduction reaction (CO 2 RR). [96] The metalnanocarbon interfacial interaction between the anchored metal atoms and the LD carbon networks also plays a paramount role in many electrocatalytic processes.…”

Atomically-dispersed NiN4–Cl active sites with axial Ni–Cl coordination for accelerating electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

“…11,14,15 The strong electronic coupling between the active centers and surrounding atoms, regulating the coordination sphere, signicantly inuences the intrinsic activity of the SACs. [16][17][18] At present, the strategies to regulate the SAC coordination environment mainly include changing the coordination atom species, increasing or decreasing the coordination number of the active center, heteroatom interaction within the support, and introducing the synergetic interaction between neighboring metal monomers. [19][20][21] However, most of the reported regulation of SACs is mainly carried out in the plane and the study of axial coordination is rarely proposed.…”

Highly dispersed Ru nanoclusters anchored on B,N co-doped carbon nanotubes for water splitting

“…In order to reduce the precious metal dosage as much as possible and to improve the utilization efficiency, an effective strategy is to load precious metals onto substrate materials. 6–10 In particular, carbon-based support materials, such as graphene, carbon dots, carbon tubes, porous carbons and so on, have attracted extensive attention because of their characteristics of high specific surface area, high conductivity and corrosion resistance. 11 The abundant functional groups on the surface such as –OH, –COOH, –NH 2 , and so on, will provide many favorable sites for the fabrication of multicomponent photo- and electroactive catalysts.…”