Abstract
The excessive consumption of fossil energy caused an energy crisis and a series of environmental issues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop sustainable and clean energy sources. Electrocatalysts play an important role in the development of various new energy devices; in particular, high-efficiency and low-cost catalysts are essential for the large-scale application of these new devices. Among the many electrocatalysts, metal chalcogenides (sulfides, selenides, and tellurides) as emerging materials own abundant active sites and good electrical conductivity and are widely studied for their excellent electrocatalytic performances. This Perspective reviews the recent applications of metal chalcogenide materials in electrocatalysis, including hydrogen evolution reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and electrolyzing water and specifically summarizes different optimization strategies and catalytic reaction mechanisms. The several regulation strategies include heteroatom doping, phase engineering, heterostructures, and hybrid materials, which are capable of improving conductivity, increasing active site exposure, and reducing the energy barrier of catalytic reactions to enhanced electrocatalytic performances. In Sec. IV, the existing problems and future challenges are proposed for the improvement of catalytic performance of metal chalcogenide materials, which provide an insight into and valuable guidelines for the future development of high-efficiency and low-cost electrocatalysts for new energy devices.
Highlights
Due to the energy crisis and environmental pollution, society urgently needs high-efficiency clean energy to replace traditional fossil energy.[1,2] Hydrogen energy with the advantages of being clean and having high energy content and good renewability has attracted much attention from researchers.[3,4] Among the diverse technologies for producing hydrogen, water electrolysis (2H2O → O2 + 2H2) is considered as the cleanest one
Pt-based catalysts show low overpotential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and Ru- and Ir-based oxides have been the best catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER).[8,9]
The reconstruction process can promote the formation of highly active nickel oxides on the interface, which promotes the adsorption of OH− and leads to the rapid rate-determining step of OER in alkaline media
Summary
Due to the energy crisis and environmental pollution, society urgently needs high-efficiency clean energy to replace traditional fossil energy.[1,2] Hydrogen energy with the advantages of being clean (zero-carbon emission) and having high energy content (about 140 MJ kg−1) and good renewability has attracted much attention from researchers.[3,4] Among the diverse technologies for producing hydrogen, water electrolysis (2H2O → O2 + 2H2) is considered as the cleanest one. Utilized as OER catalysts, which is better than RuO2 and IrO2 in alkaline solution.[12] CoSe2 has been used as promising bifunctional catalysts for water electrolysis in an alkaline electrolyte.[13] the overall catalytic performance level of the metal chalcogenides still needs to be improved to meet the actual application requirements. The specific contribution of different elements to the electrocatalytic reactions may be different, and the true active sites of the metal chalcogenide materials at high potential are not clear. This Perspective summarizes the recently reported metal chalcogenide materials, including sulfides, selenides, and tellurides, used in HER, OER, and water electrolysis. Challenges and opportunities of metal chalcogenides for electrocatalysis in the future will be discussed
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