Nanoscale electrocatalyst design for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction through activity descriptor identification

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is the cathodic half-reaction of water electrolysers for producing hydrogen (H 2 ) gas in a carbon-neutral manner. In the pursuit of system-level H 2 production under less corrosive conditions, an alkaline water electrolyser provides a promising means of energy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMaterials chemistry frontiers Vol. 5; no. 11; pp. 442 - 458
Main Authors Baek, Du San, Lee, Jinyoung, Lim, June Sung, Joo, Sang Hoon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Royal Society of Chemistry 07.06.2021
Subjects
Catalysts
Electrocatalysts
Energy conversion
Hydrogen
Hydrogen evolution reactions
Hydrogen production
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Summary:The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is the cathodic half-reaction of water electrolysers for producing hydrogen (H 2 ) gas in a carbon-neutral manner. In the pursuit of system-level H 2 production under less corrosive conditions, an alkaline water electrolyser provides a promising means of energy conversion. However, the sluggish kinetics of the alkaline HER, originating from an additional water dissociation step required for surface hydrogen adsorption, remains an important challenge. The complex nature of the alkaline HER mechanism renders the identification of an all-embracing activity descriptor a current topic of debate, which in turn hinders the design of high-performance catalysts for the alkaline HER. In this review, we present recent attempts to reach a consensus on the activity descriptors of the alkaline HER. We summarise activity-descriptor-guided design strategies for high-performance nanocatalytic materials for the alkaline HER with notable examples. We have tabulated activity parameters of representative catalysts. We conclude this review by suggesting future perspectives gleaned from this study. This review overviews recent progress in activity descriptor identification and strategies for designing advanced nanocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction.
Bibliography:Sang Hoon Joo is a professor of chemistry at UNIST. He received his BS (1998) and the PhD (2004) degrees from KAIST under Prof. Ryong Ryoo. Prior to joining UNIST in 2010, he was a research staff member at SAIT, Samsung Electronics and a postdoctoral associate under Prof. Gabor Somorjai at the University of California, Berkeley. His research group focuses on the development of electrocatalysts for energy conversion reactions and commodity chemical production and molecular-level understanding of structure-catalytic property relationships.
Du San Baek received a BS degree in chemical engineering from UNIST in 2016. He is currently pursuing his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Sang Hoon Joo at the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST. His research interests include the development of metal carbide- and carbon-based porous materials as electrocatalysts for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction.
ISSN:2052-1537
2052-1537
DOI:10.1039/d1qm00183c