Coatings as Key Materials in Catalytic Applications

Catalytic technologies, including photo-catalysis, electro-catalysis, and recently tribo-catalysis, are becoming increasingly important in promoting the conversion of clean energies in nature to chemical energy in important applications such as environmental remediation and the production of chemical fuels. For photo-catalysis, catalysts are sometimes fabricated as coatings on large-area substrates to increase the absorption of solar light; for electro-catalysis, coatings are often applied to catalysts to improve their performance, while for tribo-catalysis, coatings on vessel bottoms can greatly increase the catalysts’ absorption of mechanical energy by creating friction with them. In all these cases, coatings play a vital role in achieving improved catalytic performance. While coatings are well known for their role in material protection, it is predicted that they will receive increasing attention for their critical roles in catalysis. In this Reprint, we publish a series of papers to show the outstanding effects of coatings in catalysis.