Modulating the coordination environment of Electrochemical Catalysis for enhanced catalytic performance

Abstract

Electrochemical catalysis serves as the cornerstone for a sustainable future, enabling clean energy conversion and advancing green chemical synthesis. Understanding and designing catalysts helps us develop more efficient catalysts. This paper systematically summarizes the regulatory mechanisms of the coordination environment on typical electrocatalytic reactions, covering oxygen reduction reactions (ORR), oxygen evolution reactions (OER), hydrogen evolution reactions (HER), carbon dioxide reduction reactions (CO₂RR), and nitrogen reduction reactions (NRR). It focuses on elucidating the concepts of different ligand types, coordination numbers, coordination configurations, and local geometries, as well as their varying effects on the electronic structure of active sites, the adsorption behavior of reaction intermediates, and the modulation of reaction pathways. This paper emphasizes the central role of the coordination environment in modulating key reaction intermediates, lowering energy barriers, and facilitating multi-electron transfer processes. It also outlines common coordination-based regulation strategies and their preparation methods for different reaction types. Furthermore, this paper summarizes recent advances in enhancing catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability through coordination environment regulation strategies, while also discussing the challenges and future directions in this field. Ultimately, the aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of catalyst performance from the perspective of the coordination environment and to offer guidance for catalyst design.