Issue 7, 2020

Atomic site electrocatalysts for water splitting, oxygen reduction and selective oxidation

Abstract

Electrocatalysis plays a central role in clean energy conversion, enabling a number of processes for future sustainable technologies. Atomic site electrocatalysts (ASCs), including single-atomic site catalysts (SASCs) and diatomic site catalysis (DASCs), are being pursued as economical alternatives to noble-metal-based catalysts for these reactions by virtue of their exceptionally high atom utilization efficiencies, well-defined active sites and high selectivities. In this review, we start from a systematic review on the fabrication routes of ASCs followed by an overview of some new and effective characterization methods to precisely probe the atomic structure. Then we give a comprehensive summary on the current advances in some typical clean energy reactions: water splitting, including hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER); oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), including selective 4e – ORR toward H2O/OH and 2e – ORR toward H2O2/HO2; selective electrooxidation of formic acid, methanol and ethanol (FAOR, MOR and EOR). At the end of this paper, we present a brief conclusion, and discuss the challenges and opportunities on the further development of more selective, active, stable and less expensive ASCs.

Graphical abstract: Atomic site electrocatalysts for water splitting, oxygen reduction and selective oxidation

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
11 dec 2019
First published
05 mar 2020

Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020,49, 2215-2264

Atomic site electrocatalysts for water splitting, oxygen reduction and selective oxidation

D. Zhao, Z. Zhuang, X. Cao, C. Zhang, Q. Peng, C. Chen and Y. Li, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020, 49, 2215 DOI: 10.1039/C9CS00869A

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