Non-novel Metal Electrocatalytic Materials for Clean Energy

Dear Colleagues,

The excessive depletion of traditional fossil fuels and accompanying environmental crisis are affecting the global community on a large scale, making the exploration of alternative, clean, sustainable energy resources an urgent issue. Hydrogen energy has considerable potential applications due to its high energy density and clean combustion products. However, the industrial production of hydrogen results in high CO₂ emissions and high energy consumption through conventional technologies. However, electrochemical water splitting has been widely recognized as the most promising strategy to produce sustainable hydrogen energy. It uses the two-electron hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the cathode and the four-electron oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode. However, the sluggish kinetics of the anode associated with multistep proton-coupled electron transfer has been recognized as the main obstacle preventing the reduction in the required overpotentials and the guarantee of long-term performance. Therefore, it is vital to design high-efficiency electrocatalysts as substitutes to noble metal catalysts.

This Special Issue focuses on (but is not limited to) the following topics:

• Novel hybrid materials for electrocatalysis;
• Design and synthesis of bifunctional electrocatalysts;

• Operando characterization of electrocatalysts;
• Theory calculation of electrocatalysts;
• Catalysis mechanisms of electrocatalysts.

If you would like to submit papers to this Special Issue or have any questions, please contact the in-house editor, Ms. Rita Lin ([email protected]).

Prof. Dr. Xiang Wu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• electrocatalysis
• hydrogen evolution reaction
• oxygen evolution reaction
• catalysis mechanisms
• overall water splitting