Transition metal carbide‐based nanostructures for electrochemical hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions

Abstract

Extensive consumption of limited fossil fuel resources generates serious environmental problems, such as release of large amounts of the greenhouse gas CO2. It is, therefore, urgently necessary to look for alternative energy resources to meet increasing energy demands. Hydrogen is a clean, environmentally friendly, and sustainable energy source. Electrochemical water splitting is one of the cleanest and greenest technologies available for hydrogen production. Unfortunately, large‐scale water electrolysis is hindered by the high costs of catalysts, since noble metal‐based materials have been demonstrated to be the best catalysts (e.g., Pt for the cathode and Ru/Ir‐oxide for the anode catalyst). Recently, transition metal carbides (TMCs) have drawn significant attention for use in electrochemical water splitting, especially for hydrogen evolution reactions, owing to their high intrinsic catalytic activities, extraordinary electrical conductivities, and abundant source materials. TMCs exhibit Pt‐like electronic structures and are considered suitable alternatives for Pt. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in the uses of representative TMCs for the electrochemical hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions and highlights advantages in the electrocatalytic effects provided by nanostructuring. Finally, existing challenges and future perspectives for use of these electrocatalysts are discussed.

A frogspawn inspired twin Mo2C/Ni composite with a conductive fibrous network as a robust bifunctional catalyst for advanced anion exchange membrane electrolyzers

“…Although coupling of transition metals with Mo 2 C has been proved to exhibit favorable HER and OER catalytic activities, it is still not competitive with noble metal catalysts owing to its small specific surface area and few active sites caused by inevitable aggregation during the complex fabrication process. 24 Previous studies declared that porous carbon carriers can expose abundant active sites and accelerate mass transfer to enhance the catalytic activity of the active materials. 25–27 Compared to carbon layers, carbon nanofiber networks are considered desirable matrices for encapsulated catalysts because of their robust mechanical strength, flexibility, large specific surface area and high electrical conductivity.…”

Abundant heterointerfaces in CoS2/MoS2 nanosheet array electrocatalysts for the enhanced oxygen evolution reaction

“…7 In response to the above situation, hydrogen (H 2 ) has emerged as an alternative energy source because of its clean nature, high efficiency and high utilization value. 8–10 H 2 production from water electrolysis can effectively solve the problem of energy conversion and storage owing to the advantages of abundant raw materials, pure products as well as simple and convenient operation. 11–16 The electrolysis of water consists of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).…”

Elevated temperature-driven coordinative reconstruction of an unsaturated single-Ni-atom structure with low valency on a polymer-derived matrix for the electrolytic oxygen evolution reaction

“…Electrochemical water spitting includes cathodic hydrogen evolution (HER) and the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with Gibbs free energy change for this reaction being 237.2 kJ mol −1 . 27 Descriptor for the OER electrolysis with design of M–N–C catalysts is based on adsorption energy of oxygenated intermediates. 28 Ni 2+ in atomic form and as nanoparticles of metallic Ni play a major role in electrochemical processes for enhanced energy density with synergistically engineered composition of bimetallic systems.…”