The replacement of powdery catalysts with self-supporting
alternatives
for catalyzing various electrochemical reactions is extremely important
for the large-scale commercial application of renewable energy storage
and conversion technologies. Metal-organic framework (MOF)-based nanoarrays
possess tunable compositions, well-defined structure, abundant active
sites, effective mass and electron transport, etc., which enable them
to exhibit superior electrocatalytic performance in multiple electrochemical
reactions. This review presents the latest research progress in developing
MOF-based nanoarrays for electrocatalysis. We first highlight the
structural features and electrocatalytic advantages of MOF-based nanoarrays,
followed by a detailed summary of the design and synthesis strategies
of MOF-based nanoarrays, and then describe the recent progress of
their application in various electrocatalytic reactions. Finally,
the challenges and perspectives are discussed, where further exploration
into MOF-based nanoarrays will facilitate the development of electrochemical
energy conversion technologies.
Literature reports have shown that in primary structures, single‐atom catalysts exhibit better performance than cluster and nanoparticles due to their maximum atom utilization and the fine‐tuning of the electronic structure of the active sites. Hierarchical structures have recently been extensively studied because of increased active sites and orderliness of channels significantly improves the catalytic performance compare to primary structures especially in nanoparticles, however, the different sized effect of catalysts research has not been reported. Herein, a unique hollow double‐shell structure (a distinct cavity‐containing) is used as a hierarchical model to study the possible difference between single atom, cluster, and nanoparticle and to establish the corresponding structure‐activity relationship. Three Co catalysts are prepared: single atoms (Co‐Catalyst‐1), clusters (Co‐Catalyst‐2, 0.5–1 nm), and nanoparticles (Co‐Catalyst‐3, ≈5 nm) and their oxygen‐reduction capacity is evaluated. The unique electronic interactions, the strong electron‐withdrawing ability of N in Co–N4 (Co‐Catalyst‐1), attract electrons from the electrode to Co, specifically by expediting the generation and transformation of the rate‐determining step intermediates *OOH. The variant spatial structure which is caused by Co atom aggregation, and led to surface area, pore size, and carbon disorder, is a distinct, therefore significant variation in mass and charge transport efficiency, and activities.
Hydrogen production technology by water splitting has been heralded as an effective means to alleviate the envisioned energy crisis. However, the overall efficiency of water splitting is limited by the...
Single‐atom catalysts (SACs) are of interest for chemical transformations of significant energy and environmental relevance because of the envisioned efficient use of active sites and the flexibility in tuning their coordination environment. Future advancement in this vein hinges upon the ability to further increase the number and accessibility of active sites in addition to fine‐tuning their chemical environment. In this work, a Ni SAC is reported with a unique hierarchical hollow structure (Ni/HH) that allows increased accessibility of the active sites. The successful obtainment of such a uniquely structured catalyst was enabled by the judiciously chosen solvent mixtures for the preparation of the precursor whose hierarchical feature is maintained during the subsequent pyrolysis and etching of the pyrolysis product. Comparative catalytic and mechanistic studies with reference to three closely related but more compact Ni SACs established the superior performance of Ni/HH for selective electroreduction of CO2 to CO. Experimental analyses by in situ attenuated total reflection surface‐enhanced infrared spectroscopy reveal that it is the facilitated formation of the *COOH intermediate in the rate‐determining step that leads to the enhanced reaction kinetics and the overall catalytic performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.