Alloy Nanostructured Catalysts for Cathodic Reactions in Energy Conversion and Fuel Generation
Journal
Energy and Fuels
Journal Volume
35
Journal Issue
23
Pages
18857-18870
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Chou S.-W
Abstract
The increasing energy demand, especially from fossil fuels, leads to pollution and consequent extreme climate changes, which drives us to face the challenges of exploring sustainable energy for the replacement of the fossil energy and new technologies for CO2 and other pollutant capture and utilization. In this mini review, we briefly summarize how alloy nanostructured catalysts could be prepared, characterized, and fabricated to boost the reduction reaction activities on the cathode in various green energy and low-carbon fuel generators, such as fuel cells, solar cells, and electrolytic cells. Nowadays, scientists are able to precisely engineer alloy nanocatalysts via wet-chemistry methods, providing excellent model systems to probe the relationships between structure/composition and activity/stability/selectivity for the relevant electrocatalytic reduction processes, including the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), tri-iodide reduction reaction (IRR), carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR), etc. During the electrocatalytic reduction reaction process, the multiple electron and/or proton transfer steps would induce a large reaction energy barrier (overpotential), which may lead to several reaction pathways, yielding various products. The side reactions result in an inefficient reduction process and, thereby, a low electricity conversion and low yield of the targeted product. As such, the insights into the relationship between catalytic activities and the nanostructured catalysts, including structural facets and/or alloy compositions, play an important role toward the performance of ORR, IRR, and CO2RR, which are the main focuses of this mini review. We also highlight the recent development of advanced alloy nanostructured catalysts toward practical applications, and their future perspective will be emphasized in the concluding remarks. © 2021 American Chemical Society.
Other Subjects
Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide process; Catalyst activity; Climate change; Electrolytic reduction; Energy conversion; Fossil fuels; Fuel cells; Green manufacturing; Oxygen reduction reaction; Pollution control; Alloy compositions; Carbon dioxide reduction; Electrocatalytic reduction; Future perspectives; Nano-structured catalyst; Reaction energy barriers; Reduction reaction; Wet chemistry method; Nanocatalysts
Type
journal article