Metal Alloys‐Structured Electrocatalysts: Metal–Metal Interactions, Coordination Microenvironments, and Structural Property–Reactivity Relationships

Abstract

Metal alloys‐structured electrocatalysts (MAECs) have made essential contributions to accelerating the practical applications of electrocatalytic devices in renewable energy systems. However, due to the complex atomic structures, varied electronic states, and abundant supports, precisely decoding the metal‐metal interactions and structure‐activity relationships of MAECs still confronts great challenges, which is critical to direct the future engineering and optimization of MAECs. Here, this timely review comprehensively summarizes the latest advances in creating the MAECs, including the metal‐metal interactions, coordination microenvironments, and structure‐activity relationships. First, the fundamental classification, design, characterization, and structural reconstruction of MAECs are outlined. Then, the electrocatalytic merits and modulation strategies of recent breakthroughs for noble and non‐noble metal‐structured MAECs have been thoroughly discussed, such as solid solution alloys, intermetallic alloys, and single‐atom alloys. Particularly, we give unique insights into the bond interactions, theoretical understanding, and operando techniques for mechanism disclosure. Thereafter, we discuss the current states of diverse MAECs with a unique focus on structural property‐reactivity relationships, reaction pathways, and performance comparisons. Finally, the future challenges and perspectives for MAECs are systematically discussed. We believe that this comprehensive review will offer a substantial impact on stimulating the widespread utilization of metal alloys‐structured materials in electrocatalysis.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Engineering the spin configuration of electrocatalysts for electrochemical renewable conversions

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Intermetallic Nanocrystals for Fuel-Cells-Based Electrocatalysis

“…Conventionally, disordered solid solution alloys tend to be formed by the general wet-chemical methods. ,− In order to promote the disorder-to-order phase transition, high-temperature annealing is necessary to overcome the activation barrier and allow the atomic diffusion. Severe particle sintering, morphology change and decrease in active surface area are several unfavorable characteristics of high temperature annealing processes, because these factors will hinder the enhancement of electrocatalysis.…”

Unsupervised Analysis of Optical Imaging Data for the Discovery of Reactivity Patterns in Metal Alloy

“…The ability to predict material reactivity through such methods can have significant socio-economic implications for improving material durability and increasing energy efficiency. [13] RM is a label-free optical imaging technique that utilizes the local changes in the refractive index of the imaged interface to reveal various (electro-)chemical phase conversions. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] This technique is particularly useful for detecting bubble formation, changes in surface film thickness and roughness, and ion intercalations.…”