TY - JOUR
T1 - Robust non-Pt noble metal-based nanomaterials for electrocatalytic hydrogen generation
AU - Yu, Jie
AU - Dai, Yawen
AU - He, Qijiao
AU - Cheng, Chun
AU - Shao, Zongping
AU - Ni, Meng
N1 - Funding Information:
M. Ni thanks the funding support (Project Nos. PolyU 152214/17E and PolyU 152064/18E) from the Research Grant Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong SAR.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Currently, the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has been a key point of focus for developing sustainable hydrogen economy, but it is hampered by sluggish reaction kinetics. Despite the fact that various non-noble metal-based materials as electrocatalysts toward the HER are gaining considerable attention, noble metal-based nanomaterials (NMNs) for catalyzing the HER still have advantageous features, i.e., wide pH applicability, high intrinsic activity, and good stability. Considering a high chemical similarity to HER-benchmark Pt metals, various non-Pt NMNs with high atom utilization, super efficiency, and durability for HER catalysis are engineered through various structural/electronic tailoring strategies, which has become a significant trend in this research field. Herein, a panoramic review about recent representative efforts and progress in the design of non-Pt NMNs is presented. It first introduces the HER fundamentals and then generally describes the structural and electronic characteristics of non-Pt noble metals matching the HER. Followed on, different tuning strategies for fabricating effective non-Pt NMN catalysts, including composition optimizing by constructing alloys or novel compounds, morphological tuning via decreasing the particle size or designing unique nanostructures, and hybrid engineering as well as crystalline structure/facet controlling, are systemically summarized, with a special focus on the underlying structure-activity relationship for different catalysts. The features of pH universality and bifunctionality for these non-Pt NMN catalysts are also highlighted. At the end, existing challenges and future perspectives awaiting this emerging research field are discussed.
AB - Currently, the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has been a key point of focus for developing sustainable hydrogen economy, but it is hampered by sluggish reaction kinetics. Despite the fact that various non-noble metal-based materials as electrocatalysts toward the HER are gaining considerable attention, noble metal-based nanomaterials (NMNs) for catalyzing the HER still have advantageous features, i.e., wide pH applicability, high intrinsic activity, and good stability. Considering a high chemical similarity to HER-benchmark Pt metals, various non-Pt NMNs with high atom utilization, super efficiency, and durability for HER catalysis are engineered through various structural/electronic tailoring strategies, which has become a significant trend in this research field. Herein, a panoramic review about recent representative efforts and progress in the design of non-Pt NMNs is presented. It first introduces the HER fundamentals and then generally describes the structural and electronic characteristics of non-Pt noble metals matching the HER. Followed on, different tuning strategies for fabricating effective non-Pt NMN catalysts, including composition optimizing by constructing alloys or novel compounds, morphological tuning via decreasing the particle size or designing unique nanostructures, and hybrid engineering as well as crystalline structure/facet controlling, are systemically summarized, with a special focus on the underlying structure-activity relationship for different catalysts. The features of pH universality and bifunctionality for these non-Pt NMN catalysts are also highlighted. At the end, existing challenges and future perspectives awaiting this emerging research field are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85093925802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/5.0021578
DO - 10.1063/5.0021578
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85093925802
SN - 1931-9401
VL - 7
JO - Applied Physics Reviews
JF - Applied Physics Reviews
IS - 4
M1 - 041304
ER -