Developing transition metal-based electrocatalysts with rich active sites for water electrolysis plays important roles in renewable energy fields. So far, some strategies including designing nanostructures, incorporat...Developing transition metal-based electrocatalysts with rich active sites for water electrolysis plays important roles in renewable energy fields. So far, some strategies including designing nanostructures, incorporating conductive support or foreign elements have been adopted to develop efficient electrocat- alysts. Herein, we summarize recent progresses and propose in-situ electrochemical activation as a new pretreating technique for enhanced catalytic performances. The activation techniques mainly comprise facile electrochemical processes such as anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, etching, lithium-assisted tuning and counter electrode electro-dissolution. During these electrochemicaI treatments, the catalyst surfaces are modified from bulk phase, which can tune local electronic structures, create more active spe- cies. enlarge surface area and thus improve the catalytic performances. Meanwhile, this technique can couple the atomic, electronic structures with electrocatalysis mechanisms for water splitting. Compared to traditional chemical treatment, the in-situ electrochemical activation techniques have superior advantages such as facile operation, mild environment, variable control, high efficiency and flex- ibility. This review may provide guidance for improving water electrolysis efficiencies and hold promis- ing for application in many other energy-conversion fields such as supercapacitors, fuel cells and batteries.展开更多
基金financially supported by Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation,China (ZR2017MB059)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21776314)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (18CX05016A)
文摘Developing transition metal-based electrocatalysts with rich active sites for water electrolysis plays important roles in renewable energy fields. So far, some strategies including designing nanostructures, incorporating conductive support or foreign elements have been adopted to develop efficient electrocat- alysts. Herein, we summarize recent progresses and propose in-situ electrochemical activation as a new pretreating technique for enhanced catalytic performances. The activation techniques mainly comprise facile electrochemical processes such as anodic oxidation, cathodic reduction, etching, lithium-assisted tuning and counter electrode electro-dissolution. During these electrochemicaI treatments, the catalyst surfaces are modified from bulk phase, which can tune local electronic structures, create more active spe- cies. enlarge surface area and thus improve the catalytic performances. Meanwhile, this technique can couple the atomic, electronic structures with electrocatalysis mechanisms for water splitting. Compared to traditional chemical treatment, the in-situ electrochemical activation techniques have superior advantages such as facile operation, mild environment, variable control, high efficiency and flex- ibility. This review may provide guidance for improving water electrolysis efficiencies and hold promis- ing for application in many other energy-conversion fields such as supercapacitors, fuel cells and batteries.
