Magnetic field-enhanced electrocatalysis has recently emerged as an advanced strategy with great application prospects for highly efficient energy conversion and storage. Directly or indirectly, the magnetic effect has been proved positive in various electrochemical reactions. This review starts from a brief introduction and analysis to the possible mechanisms (magnetothermal effect, magnetohydrodynamic effect, Maxwell stress effect, Kelvin force effect, and spin selectivity effect) of magnetic field-enhanced electrocatalysis. The recent advances in magnetic field-enhanced electrochemical reactions, including hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, oxygen reduction reaction, and CO2 reduction reaction, are comprehensively summarized. The review ends up with perspectives on the future research of taking advantage of magnetic effect for enhanced electrocatalysis.

To ensure sustainable hydrogen production by water electrolysis,robust, earth-abundant, and high-efficient electrocatalysts are required. Constructing ahybrid system could lead to further improvement in electrocatalytic activity.I nterface engineering in composite catalysts is thus critical to determine the performance,a nd the phase-junction interface should improve the catalytic activity.H ere,w es howt hat nickel diphosphide phase junction (c-NiP 2 /m-NiP 2)i sa ne ffective electrocatalyst for hydrogen production in alkaline media. The overpotential (at 10 mA cm À2)f or NiP 2-650 (c/m) in alkaline media could be significantly reduced by 26 %a nd 96 % compared with c-NiP 2 and m-NiP 2 ,respectively.The enhancement of catalytic activity should be attributed to the strong water dissociation ability and the rearrangement of electrons around the phase junction, which markedly improved the Volmer step and benefited the reduction process of adsorbed protons.

Plasmonics has emerged as a promising methodology to promote chemical reactions and has become a field of intense research effort. Ag nanoparticles (NPs) as plasmonic catalysts have been extensively studied because of their remarkable optical properties. This review analyzes the emergence and development of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in organic chemistry, mainly focusing on the discovery of novel reactions with new mechanisms on Ag NPs. Initially, the basics of LSPR and LSPR-promoted photocatalytic mechanisms are illustrated. Then, the recent advances in plasmonic nanosilver-mediated photocatalysis in organic transformations are highlighted with an emphasis on the related reaction mechanisms. Finally, a proper perspective on the remaining challenges and future directions in the field of LSPR-promoted organic transformations is proposed.

Herein, with two-dimensional (2D) borocarbonitride (BCN) as a metal-and plasmon-free surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform, we demonstrate a band structure engineering strategy to facilitate the charge transfer process for an enhanced SERS response. Especially, when the conduction band of the BCN substrate is tuned to align with the LUMO of the target molecule, remarkable SERS performance is achieved, ascribed to the borrowing effect from the vibronic coupling of resonances through the Herzberg−Teller coupling term. Meanwhile, fluorescence quenching is achieved due to the efficient charge transfer between the BCN substrate and target molecule. Consequently, BCN can accurately detect 20 kinds of trace chemical and bioactive analytes. Moreover, BCN exhibits excellent thermal and chemical stability, which can not only withstand high-temperature (300 °C) heating in the air but also resist long-term corrosion in harsh acid (pH = 0, HCl) and base (pH = 14, NaOH). This work provides new insight into band structure engineering in promoting the SERS performance of plasmon-and metal-free semiconductor substrates.

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