Themed collection Highlights in electrocatalysis

Schematic of conventional water electrolysis vs. hybrid water electrolysis, and their advantages over each other.

PSRFBs face challenges such as sluggish kinetics and polysulfide crossover. Future research could focus on designing high-performance membranes, developing redox mediators or soluble catalysts, and optimizing polysulfide solvation structures.

This review presents a comprehensive overview of interfacial water in electrocatalysis.

Starting from the fundamental reaction mechanisms of lithium–oxygen batteries, this review systematically summarizes the structure–activity relationship between the electronic structure of cathode catalysts and their catalytic performance.

The interface engineering includes intricate procedures for the development of heterostructures and heterojunctions, modifying the composition at the interface, and optimizing the interfacial area to enhance H₂ catalytic performance.

Electrocatalytic aldehyde oxidation, which has low oxidation potentials, has emerged as a promising anodic reaction to be coupled with a diversity of electroreduction reactions.

It is imperative to transition towards sustainable energy sources to mitigate the escalating threat of global warming and ameliorate the adverse impacts of climatic changes.

The electrolyzer directly converts liquid anhydrous NH₃ into pressurized, high-purity H₂ (>5.5 bar, >99.99%) at 10 °C with a faradaic efficiency of >98.8%, eliminating the need for additional H₂ purification and separation processes.

A schematic representation of the synthesis of NiCo-t-MOF and its application in overall electrochemical water splitting.

Cu–Sn affinity lowers barriers for Sn plating and Sn(OH)₃⁻ oxidation, promoting efficient four-electron redox in aqueous Sn batteries.

Iron/vanadium bimetallic sulfides are constructed by in situ modulating phase structure under high-temperature sulfuration conditions with the help of the electron-promoting effect of sodium species, achieving fast-charging sodium storage.

Multiphysics modelling reveals how the electric double layer governs nitrate transport and how a more negative catalyst potential-of-zero-charge promotes ammonia formation.

In situ spectroscopies reveal the increase of Fe and Ni valence states during oxygen evolution in anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWE) for hydrogen production.

LNFP serves as a functional additive for lithium–sulfur battery cathodes by providing rapid ion migration channels along with polysulfide adsorption and catalytic conversion capabilities, thus enabling high-performance batteries.

Synergistic effect of an ordered three-dimensional (3D) nanostructure and Pd catalyst in a 3D Ni/Pd air cathode enhances uniform triple-phase boundary (TPB) formation and reaction kinetics, improving battery performance in Li–O₂ batteries (LOBs).

Mo–Ni single atom pairs supported on N-doped carbon efficiently and selectively produce urea (yield of 11.3 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ and 31.8%) from nitrates and CO₂ upon optimized pulsed electrochemical reduction conditions (−0.5/−0.7 V vs. RHE).

Producing sustainable hydrogen through water electrolysis is a promising approach to meet the growing demand for renewable energy storage.

The Lewis acidity of Ni²⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions in a layered double hydroxide (LDH) was enhanced by incorporating the lanthanide dopant Ce, tuning the surface electronic configurations to prefer OH* adsorption over Cl* adsorption.

The Fe uptake influence on Ni-MOF-74 derived oxygen evolution electrocatalysts is studied bridging operando XAS studies with implementation in AEM-WE.

A plasma discharge method in water was proposed to synthesize Fe,N–Co(OH)_x. Fe/N co-doping formed N–Co–O–Fe molecules which accelerated electron redistribution, facilitating high-valent Co(IV) formation and lattice oxygen activation.

An asymmetric RE–O–Ru unit site is designed to enhance electrocatalytic activity and stability for the OER in acidic media by preventing the over-oxidation and dissolution of Ru species, while accelerating the *OH deprotonation process.

The self-limiting surface leaching mechanism effectively suppresses continuous leaching, significantly prolonging the lifespan of ruthenium-based electrocatalysts for acidic water oxidation.

This study describes the synthesis of high-entropy layered double hydroxide (HE-LDH) nanoneedles, via a simple hydrothermal method using cost-effective non-noble transition metals (Fe, Co, Cr, Mn, and Zn), for efficient electrocatalysis.

Iron clusters coupled with single atom sites have been developed as bifunctional oxygen reaction electrocatalysts for constructing ultra-stable, flexible zinc–air batteries operable in a temperature range from +40 °C to −40 °C.

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction (CO₂R) in conventional systems typically generates highly diluted product output streams. Here we show that operating the gas diffusion electrode in a 'reverse' mode enables collection of gas products at high purity.

A chemical–electrochemical coupled pathway on Ni(OH)₂ surface has been proposed for high-selectivity urea electrooxidation reaction (UOR) as the alternative of conventional oxygen evolution reaction (OER).

Crystalline nitrogen-doped-carbon anchored Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were synthesized through the pyrolysis of a mixture of g-C₃N₄ and Fe@Tpy, which promoted scalable and affordable neutral H₂O₂ electrosynthesis under H₂O (salt-free) and O₂ condition.

Iron doping brings supported ruthenium with an optimized interfacial reaction microenvironment for achieving superior hydrogen evolution activity in alkaline conditions.

A deep reconstructed amorphous FeMoOOH/NF catalyst was designed and characterized, exhibiting low overpotential and high stability in both alkaline aqueous solution and seawater.

The incorporation of iron into the cobalt-based metal–organic framework modifies the electronic environment and the resulting bimetallic MOF exhibits enhanced oxygen evolution reaction performance.