Novel Electrocatalysts for Boosting Oxygen/Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

A special issue of Catalysts (ISSN 2073-4344). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrocatalysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 739

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610207, China
2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Interests: electrolysis; ammonia electrosynthesis; water electrolysis; nanoarray; nanomaterials
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Guest Editor
NTI-NTU Corporate Laboratory, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Interests: water electrolysis; electrochemical catalysis; electrochemical surface reconstruction; oxygen evolution reaction; nanomaterials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Hydrogen, an environmentally friendly energy carrier, has been addressed as a future energy source owing to its higher energy density and the absence of the carbon footprints of combustion products. Electrochemical water splitting, consisting of cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), has been considered the most optimistic technology for large-scale H2 fuel production. Currently, the rational design and exploitation of efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts to improve the efficiency of water electrolysis is a challenge. This Special Issue aims to cover recent advances in HER and OER, including the novel design of HER and OER electrocatalysts for composition manipulation, morphology control or structural engineering, the advanced characterization of electrocatalysts using state-of-the-art microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, studies of electrocatalytic mechanisms, and the exploration of applications of electrocatalysts. All types of articles, including original research articles, communications, and brief research reports, are welcome. Perspectives and reviews on challenges and opportunities for HER and OER electrocatalyst development are also highly appreciated.

Dr. Longcheng Zhang
Dr. Justin Seow
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • electrocatalytic water splitting
  • hydrogen evolution reaction
  • oxygen evolution reaction
  • seawater electrolysis

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 4068 KiB  
Article
Defect-Rich Co(OH)2 Induced by Carbon Dots for Oxygen Evolution Reaction
by Xuan Han, Chao Guo, Hui Wang, Weijuan Xu, Qinlian Liu, Qingshan Zhao and Mingbo Wu
Catalysts 2025, 15(3), 219; https://doi.org/10.3390/catal15030219 - 26 Feb 2025
Viewed by 396
Abstract
Hydrogen production from water electrolysis offers a highly promising and sustainable route to solve the energy crisis. However, it is severely limited by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occurring on the anode. Herein, employing carbon dots functionalized with benzene [...] Read more.
Hydrogen production from water electrolysis offers a highly promising and sustainable route to solve the energy crisis. However, it is severely limited by the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) occurring on the anode. Herein, employing carbon dots functionalized with benzene sulfonate groups (BS-CDs) as a distinctive inductor, a Co(OH)2 catalyst featuring abundant defects was synthesized for an enhanced OER. The highly hydrophilic nature of BS-CDs exerts a significant interfacial induction effect on the growth dynamics of Co(OH)2, fostering the formation of elevated crystal defects and a substantial quantity of oxygen vacancies. The resulting BS-CDs/Co(OH)2 catalyst requires an overpotential of only 340 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in alkaline media, demonstrating markedly improved OER activity compared to pristine Co(OH)2 and N-CDs/Co(OH)2 induced by amine-modified CDs. Furthermore, the structural integrity of the catalyst is maintained, with a current retention rate of 92% observed following a 20 h stability assessment. This work provides a novel approach for developing cost-effective transition metal catalysts that exhibit exceptional catalytic efficiency and excellent stability for the OER. Full article
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